"Get the Lead Out! Sulfur, Too" - Middle East Clean Fuels

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 004297 SIPDIS SIPDIS EPA for OIA/Medearis, Buckley E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV TBIO ENRG XF EG SUBJECT: "Get the Lead Out! Sulfur, Too" - Middle East Clean Fuels Meeting AMMAN 00004297 001.3 OF 002 ¶1. Summary: Fifty participants in the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles met in Cairo May 24-25. Stakeholders discussed plans to eliminate the use of leaded gasoline, and to promote low sulfur gasoline and diesel in the Middle East and North Africa. Studies from the United States show that health savings from clean fuels are on the order of 15 times the cost. Clean fuels mean fewer harmful emissions and allow more effective use of catalytic converters. End summary. -------------- Background: US Started Process in 1970's -------------- ¶2. There has been a worldwide effort for years to eliminate the use of leaded gasoline, starting with the United States in the 1970's. The concepts and technology have gradually spread around the world. U.S. EPA and environmental agencies in other countries have created ever stricter standards for fuels and for vehicle emissions as an important part of reducing air pollution. ¶3. The UN Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (www.unep.org/pcfv) was created during the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development and is managed out of UNEP's Nairobi headquarters. Since its inception, the Partnership has spearheaded a drive to eliminate leaded fuels, and appears headed for near-total success. All of sub-Saharan Africa went lead-free in January 2006. ¶4. The Partnership is notable for its pinpoint focus on clean fuels and technologies for existing on-road vehicles. During the Cairo meeting, the Partnership's managers relentlessly hauled discussion back to the here-and-now when participants started to get excited about next-generation technologies. In Cairo, the discussion centered on gasoline and diesel; there was relatively little discussion of ethanol, biodiesel and natural gas. As a result, the Partnership has been able to show clear results in its chosen area of focus. -------------- -- Vehicles Cause Up to 90% of Urban Air Pollution -------------- -- ¶5. With up to 70-90% of urban air pollution coming from "mobile sources" (cars, trucks, buses),demand for transportation rising, and increasing urbanization around the globe, the problem of urban air pollution from vehicles is severe and increasing. Dr. Kathleen Abdalla from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs said that air pollution can cost 2% of GDP per year through increased health costs and lower labor productivity. Air pollution can hurt human health, natural resources, agriculture, infrastructure and cultural artifacts such as outdoor sculptures and monuments. -------------- -------------- Yemen and Jordan Among Few Countries Selling Leaded Gas -------------- -------------- ¶6. Worldwide, there remain only a few nations selling leaded gasoline. In the NEA region, the leaded rogues' gallery includes Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Jordan. More than 95% of Egypt's gas is unleaded according to one participant from Egypt, but there is still an area where leaded gasoline is sold. The Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Oman went to unleaded gas in 2002. Syria went lead-free in early 2006. Israel has been using unleaded gas for many years. Libya and Lebanon have been lead-free since 2003. Even Iran, not usually noted as an environmental leader, uses only unleaded gas, and is working to promote the use of natural gas in vehicles to reduce the heavy air pollution in its cities. -------------- Unleaded Gas is More Expensive than Leaded -------------- ¶7. Some countries go lead-free with relative ease, others take longer. A lack of infrastructure can actually ease the transition to unleaded, since once the decision is made to go unleaded, the country simply buys unleaded gasoline instead of leaded. Countries with refineries face more complex issues such as the potential lost of jobs from closing outdated refineries or coming up with capital to convert refineries. Also, unleaded gas is more expensive to refine than leaded gas. Without subsidies or tax incentives, unleaded is more expensive than leaded gasoline at the pump. This gives consumers a disincentive to use unleaded if they have a choice and if pump prices are set by the market. -------------- Low Lead and Low Sulfur Mean Fewer Emissions -------------- AMMAN 00004297 002 OF 002 ¶8. The benefits from eliminating lead and reducing sulfur are two-fold. Lead is documented to impair mental development and has other negative health effects. Sulfur in fuels creates noxious sulfur oxides. Lead and sulfur compounds are dangerous pollutants in their own right, and also destroy the capabilities of catalytic converters that can reduce other harmful car emissions by up to 90%. ¶9. Cleaning up fuels themselves has several positive impacts on air pollution. First and foremost, raising fuel quality immediately lowers emissions from the entire transportation fleet. This is a significant benefit in areas with lots of older cars, such as Morocco, Lebanon and Syria where 50% or more of the car fleet is 10 years old or older. While improvements in car-based anti-pollution equipment are important, they take effect only gradually over the course of years, even in affluent countries, as new vehicles replace older vehicles. Clean fuels also enable existing and planned emissions control technologies to operate at peak effectiveness, reducing emissions across a wide spectrum of pollutants. -------------- Benefit/Cost Ratio for Clean Fuels is 15 to 1 -------------- ¶10. The quantifiable benefits from clean air tend to be found in lower health care costs and in work days not lost to sickness. This reinforces the environment-health linkage that is one of the fundamental partnerships in the environmental movement. A former EPA fuels specialist and now a leading international consultant quoted U.S. studies that show a benefit/cost ratio for clean fuels on the order of 15/1. The ratio measures only hard dollars, and does not include softer measures and positive externalities such as better views and visibility. -------------- Clean Diesel Technology Now Available -------------- ¶11. While unleaded fuels and catalytic converters for gasoline engines are, relatively speaking, a known quantity and widely understood, clean diesel technologies have only recently arrived to the market. But they have arrived. (See www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.) Modern diesels, which require low sulfur fuel, not only have catalytic converters but also have particulate filters that trap and burn off more than 90% of the sooty black particles familiar to anyone who has driven behind a bus. In Europe, most new diesel cars sold today have particulate filters. ¶12. During the Cairo meeting, EPA presented results from a pilot project in Mexico City to retrofit twenty existing city buses with 1) low sulfur fuel, 2) diesel oxidation catalysts (on older buses), and 3) diesel particulate filters (on newer buses). Particulate emissions were reduced up to 44% on the older buses, and a staggering 92% on the newer buses. Ultrafine particulates were reduced up to 95%. Ultrafine particulates are felt to be a health hazard at any level, since fine particles can be inhaled deep into the alveoli of the lungs and can be absorbed into the bloodstream. -------------- Sulfur - The Lead of the 21st Century -------------- ¶13. The countries of North Africa and the Middle East - except Israel - have a particularly severe problem with "sour" or high-sulfur diesel. Europe, Japan and the United States currently have standards at 50 ppm (parts per million) or lower, and are inexorably moving towards single digit levels. Japan is already selling diesel with 10 ppm of sulfur, several European countries are introducing diesel with 10 ppm sulfur, and the United States is introducing diesel with 15 ppm sulfur in June 2006. Several countries in the Middle East and North Africa region (including Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Oman, Syria and Iraq) have sulfur levels in diesel of 2,000 ppm, and as high as 10,000 ppm. The Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles is working with countries around the world to promote global use of diesel fuel with 50 ppm or less of sulfur. ¶14. Comment: UNEP's Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles can save lives with its quite modest funding. The Partnership is actively seeking new members from governments, businesses and NGO's around the world. ¶15. Embassy Cairo and EPA have cleared this cable. RUBINSTEIN