Leaded petrol to be phased out by 2005

By Martin Hellicar

AN EU directive banning leaded petrol could spell the end of the road for older vehicles that cannot run on unleaded fuel.

The directive gives European countries five years in which to phase out leaded petrol altogether, stating that only unleaded petrol must be available at pumps from the end of 2005.

Costas Papastavros, of the Agriculture Ministry’s Environment Service, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that this directive was part of the EU aquis communitaire and that Cyprus would have to comply.

He said the issue had not yet been looked at in detail, but if Cyprus wanted to join the EU then she would “have to dance to the same tune” as Europe.

Implementation of the directive would mean owners of older cars would no longer be able to find petrol. Commerce Ministry statistics show that about a fifth of all cars on the island today cannot run on unleaded fuel.

Papastavros said other European countries were giving incentives, in the form of subsidies, for owners of older cars to replace them with newer vehicles that run on unleaded.

The government scientist said this option was being considered by the government, but had not yet been seen in detail.

The directive is good news for the environment, and air quality in particular.

Not only will vehicle emissions of toxic lead be cut out, but cars running on unleaded petrol require catalytic converters, which reduce releases of other pollutants.

In fact, vehicle emissions in Cyprus could already be much lower, were it not for the fact that many importers remove the catalytic converters from the cars they bring in. The converters get the chop because they slightly reduce engine performance.

Sotiris Kolletas, a senior officer in the Commerce Ministry’s road transport department, said that almost all cars currently imported from Europe and Japan were designed to run on unleaded, and therefore had converters.

He said that 80 per cent of cars on Cyprus roads could run on unleaded – but only between 15 and 20 per cent did so (even if this proportion is rising fast).

Kolletas said this was because many cars had had their catalytic converters sawed off.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.