Speech prepared for delivery at the press conference to announce the end of the use of leaded petrol worldwide.
Leaded fuel illustrates, in a nutshell, the kind of mistakes that humanity has been making at every level of our societies. The kind of mistakes that have brought the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste down upon our heads.
Companies added Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) to petrol to improve fuel combustion. This TEL was emitted in exhaust fumes, causing airborne pollution and soil pollution. Later on, TEL also damaged the catalytic convertors that reduced up to 95 per cent of common air pollutants. You have already heard today about the grave damage these issues caused to human health.
Basically, industries rushed to adopt the first and cheapest technology that worked, despite its grave implications for environmental and health, while ignoring sustainable and clean technologies. Sound familiar?
But the global response to leaded fuel shows that humanity can learn from – and fix – its mistakes. We got to where we are today thanks to the innovative public-private Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV), for which UNEP provides the secretariat. We got here with the cooperation of over 75 members, including governments, industry, international organizations and independent experts. We got here through a campaign, designed and implemented by UNEP, with close involvement of the partners, to eliminate the use of leaded fuels in 86 countries.
It wasn’t easy. We overcame resistance from the companies producing the lead additive. We sparked investments to replace lead while maintaining the same octane levels. We overcame concerns over the pricing of unleaded fuels. Supported countries who were dealing with conflicts or stocks of TEL.
The success we celebrate today provides clear lessons on dealing with environmental challenges. Lessons on the need for independent science, innovation, free media, clear objectives and goals, focused interventions, messaging on the benefits for people and high-level political commitment.
We now must apply these lessons elsewhere. In developing better vehicle standards to deal with carbon dioxide emissions from the global transport sector, as we transition away from fossil fuels. In ridding the world of single-use plastics. Restoring forests and other degraded ecosystems. Protecting wildlife.
But we will only succeed if we work together, as we did to end leaded fuel. As governments. As the UN. As civil society. As producers and consumers. Only by working as a global community, guided by science, can we end the triple planetary crisis.
Thank you.
Executive Director
