Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'
The UK's "illogical" use of biofuels will cost motorists 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 says that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to make up 5% of the UK's transport fuel from today.
Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel suppliers to include a growing proportion of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.
Deep fried fuel
But research study carried out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level implies that UK drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy material.
The report say that if the UK is to satisfy its responsibilities to EU energy targets the expense to motorists is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.
"It is difficult to discover any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.
"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really costly method to minimize carbon emissions," he stated.
The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having extremely distorting results in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.
"It creates a monetary reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"
"It is insane however the rewards are there."
There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more climate problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the larger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had actually caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.
"Once you consider these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using 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 irrational method."
Biofuel advantages
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, stated it understood the problems caused by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, job supervisor at the EBB.
"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has actually lowered 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 tough choices on how to move on on this concern as it faces tripling the expenses for drivers by 2020.
Insiders recommend its choice would be to try 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 farming sectors who benefit from the present arrangement will be challenging.
"When you have a lobby which consists of 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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