Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than fossil fuels'

The UK's "irrational" usage of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

A report by Chatham House, external says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.

The author states that biodiesel made from grease was worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel sources.

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transportation fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has actually needed fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the petrol and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study performed for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK motorists will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up regularly as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report state that if the UK is to satisfy its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

"It is tough to discover any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really costly way to minimize carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting impacts in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the cost for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than oil.

"It develops a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"

"It is insane but the incentives exist."

There are also frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more climate problems than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is taken into cars the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the very first place," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally irrational strategy."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, said it knew the issues triggered by the required. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel; it has reduced EU dependency on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

"If there was no biodiesel farmers would simply make their land idle - no food, no feed!"

As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government faces some hard decisions on how to progress on this concern as it deals with tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.

Insiders recommend its preference would be to try and get agreement in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with powerful agricultural sectors who take advantage of the present plan will be tough.

"When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is extremely hard for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.

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