Monthly Archive for July, 2008

The CSIRO Future Fuels Forum has released a report on surviving the increasing costs of transport energy.

The Fuel for thought is about the ways Australia (and Australians) can respond to the increasing cost of fuel, both in the short term but more importantly into the longer term future. Australia is very dependent on oil to fuel our transport – both personal and economic. It is this dependence on road transport that in the immediate future will see costs of nearly everything from fresh food to toothbrushes climb higher and higher.

Director of CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship, Dr John Wright, said Australia’s transport fuel mix will substantially change in response to issues such as climate change and oil prices.

“Securing access to affordable and sustainable fuel underpins Australia’s economy and way of life and as a nation with relatively high vehicle use, we are vulnerable to the economic, environmental and social impacts of rising oil prices and rising temperatures,” he said

You have probably seen that there are predictions that petrol will reach $8 per litre in the foreseeable future, meaning the average family would be spending $220 a week on petrol. I couldn’t afford that so I know I would need to be making lifestyle choices.

Here are some ideas from the report;

Australia’s fuel mix will shift in the near term to include the expanded use of;
diesel,
gaseous fuels such as LPG and
hybrid electric vehicles,
with even greater diversity beyond 2020 that might include;
hydrogen,
synthetic fuels from coal or gas and
advanced biofuels that will not impact food production.

Yesterday i filled our little Barina – costing nearly $70, now that is crazy. So what am I doing about it. Well I rarely drive much – fortunately I live and work close to the train line, and am happy to walk where possible. For those other times I have a scooter which is an exceedingly efficient mode of personal transport. And the car – well we do our best to use it as little as possible – but these are all things done before fuel prices went up because as this report says the other petrol problem is carbon emissions.

Perhaps the most telling part of this report is the single statement;

Results such as this could be seen as a catalyst for early action on the development and roll-out of alternative fuel options, low emission vehicle technologies and infrastructure that supports sustainable transport.

So much of our future fuel resilience will come from clever infra-structure projects that allow everybody to access efficient, reliable, safe, convenient mass transport.