HC Deb 08 July 2003 vol 408 c686W
Mr. Challen

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what emission savings he estimates have been achieved through supporting the take-up of liquefied petroleum gas vehicles; and what the cost per tonne of carbon saved from the Government's support of LPG has been. [123350]

Mr. Jamieson

Just under 12,000 LPG vehicles have received grant support totalling some £13 million under the Government's PowerShift programme since its inception in 1997.

These vehicles will deliver lifetime savings of around 111,000 tonnes of CO2, 760 tonnes of NOx and 10 tonnes of particulates'. The support for the wider use of LPG vehicles is aimed at securing reductions in all these emissions, to help improve air quality as well as reduce climate change emissions and the cost cannot be properly attributed to the CO2 reductions alone.

The Government's support for LPG has also been aimed at widening fuel diversity in the transport sector, and has been successful in establishing LPG as an alternative fuel, now available nationwide, reducing consumption of conventional fuels by some 300 million litres, through the total of around 100,000 LPG vehicles—the 12,000 vehicles supported through the PowerShift scheme, and the larger number converted without grant. 1Estimates provided by the Energy Saving Trust, which administers the grant programme on behalf of the Department for Transport.