A few weeks ago, taxi owners in Mauritius took part in a ?go-slow? protest, demanding amongst other things, subsidised petrol. We must ask ourselves if they were really serious or if this was a joke at our expense. The energy bill of the country keeps soaring. According to the CSO (Central Statistics Office), in 2003, we imported Rs 7 million worth of energy products. Transport alone accounted for 48% of all consumption. Gasoline accounts for 25% and diesel for 42% of our petrol needs. Much of this increase results from the greater number of cars on our roads. With the price of oil still hovering around the $ 60 mark, it is becoming increasingly expensive to travel on Mauritian roads.

The taxi owners would have us believe that their plight is unique. However, energy is becoming a rare commodity and our dependence on it is not sustainable. Firstly because oil reserves will not last forever and secondly because energy derived from fossil fuels is inducing climate change, which will threaten the whole planet in the coming years. Hence, we must moderate our consumption of petrol and incidentally our love affair with cars cannot continue to grow. This is not such a preposterous idea as it may sound. In his State of the Union address this year, George Bush said the unthinkable, when he condemned Americans? overuse of cars. And this comes from a man whose links with the oil industry have been extensively documented. Only this week, Britain?s energy minister described off-roads as monstrosities, which consume too much petrol.

<B>Soaring numbers of cars </B>

While the world is coming to grips with the energy crisis, Mauritius slumbers in a past era of insouciance. The number of cars being bought continues to reach astronomical figures. More than 10 000 cars are sold every year in Mauritius. According to the CSO, there were 62,500 cars, 6,000 taxis and 39,400 dual-purpose vehicles (now increasingly popular), amounting to a total of 107,900. Mauritius is at present driving nearly 1% of the 13.6 million such vehicles in Africa. This is quite a feat for a country whose inhabitants make up less than 0.2% of the continent?s population.

Wealth plays a major part in car ownership worldwide. Mauritius, with the second highest GDP per capita in Africa, justifiably owns more cars. As such, Europeans drive 271.4 million cars and Americans, north and south, 202.1 million. Asia, with roughly two-thirds of the world population, drives only 119.8 million cars by comparison. Worldwide the total runs to 620 million, a figure expected to double by 2020. All these cars mean an awful lot of travelling and thus an awful lot of burnt fossil fuels, thus contributing to the degradation of the environment. As India and China get richer, more cars will be added to our roads, exacerbating the problem. At this rate, we are living on borrowed time.

<B>Energy of the future</B>

However, the attitude towards petrol-guzzling vehicles is beginning to change. Last week, in an interview to Sky News, the managing director of Land Rover, whose range of vehicles the British Energy minister had classed as monstrosities, revealed that in a couple of years, their new vehicles will be 30% more efficient at burning fuel. This is an astonishing step. In fact, the big companies are willing to change their products if the consumers and the government show enough willpower.

The only industry which remains stubborn in polluting freely remains aviation. There, lack of pressure from governments and the public?s cavalier approach to air transport has given aviation companies carte blanche to be the world?s biggest greenhouse emitter, ahead of oil companies.

Hence, car manufacturers have turned to bio-ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels. While this fuel is not pollution-free, it is expected to cut greenhouse emissions by 60%.

However, at the moment, few cars operate on bio-ethanol. In Britain, only a handful of cars do so, versions of Saab and Ford. Engine specifications mean cars can run on E5 only, petrol with a 5% ethanol content. Here, it gets tricky. Finding a petrol station, which sells the cleaner product, is not always easy.

There are only 185 stations which sell it, all owned by Tesco, the retail giant. In the future, the Holy Grail will be to produce more flexi-fuel vehicles, which burn both petrol and E85 (an 85% ethanol mix).

Bio-ethanol is not produced in the UK. It is in fact imported from Brazil, where most of the cars run on this fuel, produced by the fermentation of sugar. Britain is preparing itself to produce its own ethanol, fermented from low-grade beet sugar. Wheat will also contribute to the production of ethanol, dubbed the energy of the future (at least the medium-term one).

The switch to cleaner fuel has also been eased by the British government, which offered various tax breaks to ethanol importers. Thus, they can offset the higher cost and offer the product at the same price to consumers. Another measure suggested by various groupings, from environmentalists to some car manufacturers, is to increase the difference between car tax bands. This would make more efficient cars cheaper.

Thus, while everyone is embracing cleaner fuel, the taxi owners in Mauritius would want the country to move in the opposite direction, back to the care-free attitude towards oil consumption. Cleaner fuels offer Mauritius many advantages. We already produce ethanol from sugar and any serious government would encourage its population to swap it for petrol.

If production can be maximised it can even be exported to the car-loving Europeans. Instead of continuing begging for better compensation on sugar, which ultimately really benefits a few, we should try and strike a deal on ethanol. Additionally, gearing car-users in Mauritius towards cleaner fuels, through tax breaks, will ensure that we cut greenhouse emissions, thus doing our bit for the environment. It is a win-win situation. Only the political will is lacking.

<B>Diren VALAYDEN</B> Outlook Correspondent in Dublin