Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even Worse than Fossil Fuels'
Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'
The UK's "unreasonable" use of biofuels will cost drivers around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank states.
A report by Chatham House, external says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food rates.
The author states that biodiesel made from veggie oil was even worse for the climate than nonrenewable fuel sources.
Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transport fuel from today.
Since 2008, the UK has required fuel suppliers to add a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the gas 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 brought out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year because of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly as biofuels have a lower energy content.
The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its obligations to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.
"It is hard to discover any great news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.
"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really expensive method to minimize carbon emissions," he said.
The EU biofuel requireds are also having hugely distorting effects in the market. Because used cooking oil is related to as among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the rate for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.
"It develops a monetary reward to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that offer it at earnings,"
"It is crazy however the incentives are there."
There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more environment issues than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the bigger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.
"Once you take into consideration these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the first place," said Rob Bailey.
"Plus you are asking vehicle drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally unreasonable method."
Biofuel advantages
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, said it understood the problems brought on by the required. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the problems worldwide is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.
"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has decreased EU reliance 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 strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government deals with some difficult decisions on how to progress on this problem as it faces tripling the costs for drivers by 2020.
Insiders recommend its choice would be to try and get contract in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with effective farming who gain from the present plan will be hard.
"When you have a lobby which includes the farming sector and the oil sector it is extremely tough for Governments to make a U-turn," stated Rob Bailey.
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