Sir, Regarding ‘Hedegaard eyes tougher emission cuts from transport‘: We need urgent and clear goals for the electrification of public transport, because combustion cars and buses destroy the climate, pollute the air and damage human health. The conversion of combustion buses (diesel buses) to electric would be finished in a year. Meanwhile, protests against combustion [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Algae: The ultimate biofuel‘: Because microalgae can, in principle, be easily and quickly propagated, these organisms have been the focus of applied research investigating the generation of valuable biomass. Decisive factors in the rising intersts for algae include its ability to accommodate large quantities of lipids under certain circumstances, and the possibility to [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Commission waters down CO2 proposal for vans‘: These proposals are all well and good in theory, but do the proposers actually have any kind of engineering background, and if not, where are they getting their advice from? Due to the combustible mechanics of modern fuel and efficiency curves for work output, there is [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Algae: The ultimate biofuel‘: Your section headed “no competition for land” ends by describing algae as “ending the potential for conflict with food production which comes with increased energy crop cultivation”. We’d all like this to work, but let’s not get carried away. If this could work profitably there would be the incentive [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Electric cars: On the road to greener transport?‘: When a crisis becomes an opportunity: roadmap for an e-mobility platform The economic crisis we witness today has everything to be considered as a catastrophe, signalling the end of an economic dream. It might however be a lot better to see the crisis as a [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Blair: Climate efforts no reason to give up cars‘: It would seem that Mr Blair is not only an expert on weapons of mass destruction (their ownership or lack thereof) but also energy policy, transport policy and indeed, climate change in general. In the case of cars, there is nothing inevitable about rising [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Intelligent transport raises privacy concerns‘: Address the root cause of congestion and you resolve the problems. It is not the number of vehicles on the roads: it is whether they can transit from point A to point B and to do so without stopping. How much would you save if every trip around [...]

Sir, Regarding your LinksDossier ‘Algae: the ultimate biofuel‘ and interview ‘EABA: Promises and challenges of algae biofuels‘: There are more issues than just costs (which are mentioned in the interview). There is doubts about the net energy balance (energy needed to get the energy out) and serious concerns about the environment. For some of the [...]

Sir, In your coverage of the EU’s clean vehicle procurement legislation, you note that aim of the policy is “to kick-start a market in technologies that are currently not commercially viable, such as biofuels, hydrogen, natural gas or LPG, electric or hybrid vehicles”. While appreciating the spirit of the sentiment, I would like to draw [...]

Sir, We welcome international discussion on the role of biofuels in meeting the world’s energy needs. While the Gallagher Review is specific to the United Kingdom’s own renewable fuels policies, it is fair to note that the research done by U.S. experts and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has shown that biofuels-related feedstock demand has [...]