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

The UK's "illogical" 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 dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from grease 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 needed fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they supply. These biofuels are generally ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level means that UK 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 satisfy its responsibilities to EU energy targets the expense to drivers is most likely to rise 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, told BBC News.

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

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

"It develops a financial reward to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at profit,"

"It is insane however the incentives exist."

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more environment problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into automobiles the bigger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very 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 illogical strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, stated it knew the problems triggered by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have numerous positives.

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

"It has brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually reduced EU reliance 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 strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government faces some challenging decisions on how to move on on this concern as it faces tripling the expenses for motorists by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the effects of indirect expenses which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from countries with effective farming sectors who gain from the current plan will be .

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

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