Third draft = submitted version
Ban on Leaded Fuel
Category: Environmental
Area of Effect: Automotive
Description: The World Assembly,
Recognising that internal combustion engines burning various organic fuels, such as short-chain hydrocarbons, are a method widely used for propelling vehicles,
Aware that burning short-chain hydrocarbons in some types of engine can lead to irregularities in the combustion cycle, a situation called ‘knocking’ that both reduces fuel-efficiency and increases wear on the engines,
Informed that one solution found for this problem is the addition of other chemicals to the fuel as ‘anti-knocking agents’, with organometallic compounds containing Lead (e.g. Tetra-Ethyl Lead) as a common choice for this role although reliable alternatives to them also exist,
Concerned that using those organometallic compounds for this purpose disperses Lead into the environment where it can be taken up directly by some life-forms and can also pass on accumulatively up the food-chains involved, possibly crossing national borders in the process, because Lead is a cumulative poison to many types of organismthatand can cause serious health problems even at sub-lethal dosages,
Believing it desirable to end this spreading of poison;
Defining the term ‘leaded fuel’ to mean any fuel mixture including organometallic compounds of Lead, or of any other metal of comparable or worse toxicity;
Hereby requires that each WA member nation _
1. Begin at once to restrict the numbers of vehicles requiring leaded fuel for efficient running that it produces and imports, so that the annual average number of such vehicles in use for civilian purposes within its borders for any year after one year has elapsed since the date of this resolution’s passage (or since the date when the nation first joined the WA, if later) will be no higher than the annual average number of them in use there for the year immediately before that initial date, and take further steps so that within no more than four years since that initial date no such vehicles at all are produced there for civilian use;
2. Begin at once to restrict the amounts of leaded fuel that it produces and imports for civilian use, so that the total amount of such fuels available for civilian purposes within its borders per year after one year has elapsed since the same initial date as for clause #1 will not exceed the total amount that was available there for that use during the year immediately before that initial date (or, if supplies were restricted during that previous year because the nation was at war for any part of that year, the total amount available there for that use during their most recent full year of peace instead if their government would prefer this figure), and take further steps so that within no more than four years since that initial date no such fuels at all are produced within its borders or brought into therein for civilian use;
3. Begin at once to restrict both the numbers of vehicles requiring leaded fuel for efficient running and the amounts of leaded fuel which it produces and imports for military use, on the same basis as it must restrict the availability of such vehicles and fuels for civilian use within its borders, unless it is in a state of open warfare at any stage during the four years following the relevant initial date in which case it may postpone the deadlines once by whichever is less out of a further four years or the duration of hostilities.
Changes from the second draft: “that can run only on leaded fuel” replaced by “ requiring leaded fuel for efficient running”, as already discussed; the fact that viable alternative solutions to ‘knocking’ also exist is now specifically mentioned in the preamble; nations that join the WA for the first time after this passes would now be allowed to measure the transition period from when they join rather than from the actual date of passage (although former members who re-join are still, of necessity, bound by the original, tighter schedule); and some other [minor] alterations to the wording, in various places, to improve clarity (I hope…) and/or to free characters for use elsewhere in the text.
“Before any of you try to question this draft’s legality because it would allow member nations to introduce the measures concerned gradually over a [specified] period of time instead of requiring that all of the changes — rather than just their commencement — take place immediately after it passes, there is legal precedent for such a policy. I cite, for example, the historical resolution ‘Fossil Fuel Reduction Act’…. and will check with the Secretariat about this point, shortly, as well.
“No, we ourrselves don’t use and never have used any such fuels, not for the Mission here nor back home in Bears Armed itself neither, and we intend never to use them.”
Artorrios o SouthWoods,
ChairBear, Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly.
. Surely you could say the exact same thing in far fewer words?
