Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'

The UK's "unreasonable" use of biofuels will cost drivers 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 costs.

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

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK motorists will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year because of the higher expense of fuel at the pump and from filling more typically as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report say that if the UK is to meet its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to motorists is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

"It is difficult to find any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very expensive way to lower carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting impacts in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is regarded as one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the rate for it has increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary incentive to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at earnings,"

"It is insane but the incentives exist."

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more climate issues than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into cars the larger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect effects, biofuels made from veggie oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from utilizing diesel in the first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable strategy."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it understood the issues triggered by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too exaggerated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has brought great deals of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually lowered 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 tough decisions on how to move forward on this problem as it deals with tripling the expenses for vehicle drivers by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to try and get arrangement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with powerful agricultural sectors who benefit from the existing plan will be hard.

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

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