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JERRY Murphy of the Environmental Research Institute at UCC claims grasslands are under-utilised and could be used to make biofuels (April 15).

However, fertilisers are needed and these are made from oil or gas feedstock requiring huge inputs of energy to manufacture. Also the grass has to be harvested and transported, and of course the manufacture of each car still requires about a tonne of fossil oil and the use of finite mineral reserves. This is neither sustainable nor carbon-neutral

Imagine a carbon neutral means of transport that not only harvests the grass, but also produces fertiliser and can reproduce itself without any cost or human intervention — it’s known as the horse.