Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'
The UK's "irrational" usage of biofuels will cost vehicle drivers around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.
A report by Chatham House, external states the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.
The author states that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was even worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK's transportation fuel from today.
Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel providers to add a growing proportion 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 performed for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the higher 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 commitments to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.
"It is difficult to find any great news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.
"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very pricey way to lower carbon emissions," he stated.
The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having extremely distorting impacts in the market. Because used cooking oil is concerned as one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the rate for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion 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 utilized cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"
"It is crazy however the incentives exist."
There are likewise stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more environment issues than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into cars the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.
"Once you consider these indirect impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain 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 benefits
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, said it was conscious of the issues caused by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the problems worldwide is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.
"It has brought great deals 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 just make their land idle - no food, no feed!"
As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government deals with some challenging decisions on how to progress on this concern as it deals with tripling the expenses for drivers by 2020.
Insiders recommend its preference would be to attempt and get contract in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from countries with effective farming sectors who gain from the current plan will be difficult.
"When you have a lobby which consists of the farming sector and the oil sector it is really hard for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.
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