When Worlds Collide #119: Long way to lowering Lanka’s Deadly Diesel Hazard

Text of my ‘When Worlds Collide’ column published in Ceylon Today newspaper on 29 August 2014

Diesel fuel sulphur status – June 2012, Map by UNEP

Progress is slow and incremental. Those who take all-or-nothing positions often end up with…nothing.

So let’s hail Sri Lanka’s leading petroleum distributor introducing a super diesel with lower levels of sulphur. This is indeed good news. But much more remains to be done.

Until now, Super Diesel marketed by the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) had a sulphur content of 500 ppm (parts per million). From 22 August 2014, its sulphur has come down to 10 ppm.

“CPC is compelled to improve the quality of diesel, since it contributes a lot towards the reduction of harmful diesel exhaust emissions causing environmental pollution and serious health hazards which have been reported to have costly effects both economically and socially on the society at large,” a…