Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'
The UK's "unreasonable" use of biofuels will
cost drivers around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.
A report by Chatham House, external says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food rates.
The author states that
biodiesel made from grease was worse for the environment 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 percentage of sustainable products into the gas and diesel they supply. These biofuels are primarily
ethanol distilled from corn and
biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.
Deep fried fuel
But research performed for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level implies that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an additional ₤ 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 content.
The report state that if the UK is to satisfy its commitments to EU
energy targets the
expense to
drivers is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.
"It is hard to discover any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, informed 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 results in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered as among the most
sustainable kinds of
biodiesel, the cost for it has increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.
"It produces a financial incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then offer it at earnings,"
"It is insane however the incentives exist."
There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more climate problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the bigger the deficit developed 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 vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using diesel in the first location," said Rob Bailey.
"Plus you are asking 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 market, external across the EU, said it was aware of the issues triggered by the mandate. But it thinks that
biofuels have lots of positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, job supervisor at the EBB.
"It has brought great deals of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has reduced 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 strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government faces some difficult decisions on how to move forward on this problem as it deals with tripling the expenses for vehicle drivers by 2020.
Insiders
recommend its choice would be to attempt and get contract in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which might
constrain what counts as
biofuel. However getting agreement from nations with powerful farming sectors who benefit from the
current plan will be hard.
"When you have a lobby which 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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