Ghana government with four other West African countries have banned some European fuel imports, because they say they are too dirty. The move aims to improve the health of more than 250 million people, according to the United Nations.
Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire have decided to ban fuel coming from Europe after campaign group Public Eye issued a damning report which said that European trading firms have been exploiting weak regulations in west Africa to export fuels with levels of sulphur up to 300 times higher than those permitted in Europe
The Dirty Diesel report highlight the pivotal role played by Swiss commodity trading companies in Africa’s fuel industry. On land or at sea, they mix a petrochemical cocktail from refinery products and other components known in the industry as “African quality”.
“It increases the amount of sulphur dioxyde produced, so sulphur in fuel directly transforms but it also has a corrosive effect on cars and especially on the emission control technology in cars,” Valentino Viredaz, one the report’s authors, told RFI. “It will then increase the overall amount of air pollution, in terms of particulate matter, but also nitrogen oxide and many other pollutants.”
“Also this “African quality” fuel not only has a high sulphur content but also toxic substances such as benzene and polycyclical aromatic hydrocarbons, all substances that are shown to be very toxic for humans”.
The group’s analysis revealed the diesel samples contained up to 378 times more sulphur than is permitted in Europe.
After a summit with the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) the five countries decided to limit sulphur in fuels from 3,000 parts per million to 50 parts per million, 60 times less.
This means that these countries will have to adopt stricter rules when it comes to what they import.
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