Biofuels: 'Irrational' and '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 says.

A report by Chatham House, external states the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil was worse for the climate than .

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily 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 implies that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since 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 meet its commitments to EU energy targets the expense to motorists is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really pricey method to reduce carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting impacts in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the rate for it has actually increased quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It produces a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that 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 developing more climate problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the bigger the deficit produced 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 effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very first location," said Rob Bailey.

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

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it was aware of the problems brought on by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems in the world is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project supervisor at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has enhanced 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 deals with some challenging choices 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 agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with effective agricultural sectors who gain from the present plan will be challenging.

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

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