As climate change rockets up the political agenda, we are surely going to see a steep rise in the number of initiatives to make us a ‘greener’ society. This week’s consultation on introducing slightly less damaging fuel to our petrol/diesel forecourts is a great illustration of the pressures that will arise as decisions are taken on so many aspects of daily living.

In terms of CO2 emissions reduction, it is no big deal. The savings are small, but useful. Blending petrol and diesel has been around for years, and the effect of this policy change merely allows the current blending level of 4% to rise towards 10%. In any event, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Bioethanol last year warned that a failure to increase the use of the product would lead to the UK losing its infrastructure (on Teesside) along with thousands of jobs. Other countries have already done so, so what were we waiting for ….?

Hence the hurry. The consultation lasts only five weeks and implementation of the preferred option of directly replacing 95 octane fuels with the new E10 in 2021 is being widely touted as the obvious way forward. Surely no-one with an ounce of green sympathies will have any problem with this. Go ahead, obviously ….!

One can understand the frustration of environmental campaigners. Councils and others who buy into the ‘climate emergency’ theory may well argue against any more foot-dragging. Why bother to consult, when the answer is so clear-cut? Leave consultation for those issues where there may be genuine controversy.

Except that, even in a case like this, one needs to take account of stakeholder views. In a previous 2018 ‘call for evidence’, the industry had expressed worries about the cost of modifying petrol station forecourts. The Daily Express headlined the consultation, helpfully adding the words  But how much will it cost? Then there is the small matter of 700,000 petrol cars in use in the UK that are not approved to use E10 fuel. In the words of the RAC spokesperson,

“Many of these are likely to be owned by those from lower income backgrounds and while it is welcome that E5 petrol is not being phased out altogether, owners of these vehicles will face higher fuel costs – and will also have to hunt out those forecourts that still sell E5.

“Some retailers will also not have the capacity to be able to provide both E5 and E10 fuels on forecourts, so the impact is likely to be most keenly felt by those with incompatible vehicles in rural areas.”

In addition, some of the more hard-line, most enthusiastic lobbyists will argue that steps like this do not go far enough, as they perpetuate the fossil-fuel economy, and do little discourage over-use of the motor car..

The truth is that even the most obvious-sounding proposals can raise issues which sensible decision-makers need to take into account. The role of such a consultation is three-fold:- to raise awareness of the issue; to explain the trade-offs and the decision that needs to be taken, and to provide a space for the likely impacts of the proposals to be voiced, understood and considered. E10 is an example of a large number of consultations that will oblige industries and communities alike to think carefully and produce imaginative solutions