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

The UK's "illogical" use of will cost motorists 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 likewise increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil 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 suppliers to add a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the fuel and diesel they provide. These biofuels are generally ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study carried out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year because of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely expensive way to minimize carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting impacts in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It creates a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then offer it at earnings,"

"It is crazy however the incentives are there."

There are likewise stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more climate problems 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 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 vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely unreasonable method."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, said it understood the issues caused by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

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

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has 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 government faces some hard choices on how to move on on this issue as it deals with tripling the expenses for motorists by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to try and get contract in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from nations with effective farming sectors who take advantage of the current arrangement will be hard.

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

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