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

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

A report by Chatham House, external states the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food costs.

The author states that biodiesel made from grease was worse for the climate than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel providers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the gas 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 carried out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level means that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say that if the UK is to fulfill its commitments to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

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

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting results in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is concerned as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually risen quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary reward to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy however the incentives exist."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more environment problems than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had actually lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

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

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely illogical technique."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, said it was conscious of the issues brought on by the . But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems in the world is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, job manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought great deals of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually lowered EU dependence on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."

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

As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some difficult choices on how to move forward on this problem as it deals with tripling the costs for vehicle drivers by 2020.

Insiders recommend its preference would be to try and get arrangement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from countries with powerful agricultural sectors who gain from the existing arrangement will be tough.

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

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