Cars 'need to use alternative power to save environment'

Cars need to be fuelled by alternative power sources in order to save the environment and improve air quality, it has been suggested.

According to Dr Gregory Offer, writing for the Independent, burning fossil fuels in order to run transport "is clearly not helping" the government's drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

He added that there is a growing need to look at alternative power supplies in order to keep cars on the road.

Dr Offer recognised the importance of electricity and chemical fuels as useful alternative energy sources, adding that in China there are already 50 million electric vehicles.

"Air quality in cities was probably the trigger [for this]," he recognised.

Financial Times blogger Josh Noble recently wrote that China's interest in cars was also having an impact on the country's use of fossil fuels.

He stated that China has a "growing appetite for coal".

Dr Offer reiterated the urgency of improving transport fuels, predicting that the number of vehicles in the world will treble over the next 40 years.

Posted by Claire Manning