THE Government must introduce tax incentives to encourage use of greener fuels, experts told an environmental forum last week. Calls for a review of the tax regime came from the AA, Sainsbury's and the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection (NSCA) the launch of the NSCA Cleaner Fuels Forum report 'Cleaner Air: the Role for Cleaner Fuels'.

AA chief engineer David Lang said the market was suffering from a cycle of inertia which could only be broken by making cleaner fuels cheaper and promoting them more widely to consumers. Senior manager for fuels at Sainsbury's, Julian Risley, said price determined the choice of the consumer and that, with small Government incentives, fuels such as City Diesel would become the choice of many more motorists.

Research carried out by the AA for the NSCA report also showed a need for more information on alternative fuels to be given to motorists. About 75% of those asked said they were unaware of the existence of low sulphur diesel and low benzene petrol. Nearly all respondents (96%) called for the Government to give them more information on what was available and 82% said they would like the Government to make it clearer which fuels motorists should use.