Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'

The UK's "unreasonable" use of biofuels will cost vehicle drivers around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

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

The author states that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel sources.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are generally 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 means that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year because of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say that if the UK is to fulfill its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to motorists is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

"It is hard to discover any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are an extremely expensive way to decrease carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having extremely distorting results in the market. Because oil is considered among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has risen quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It develops a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that sell it at revenue,"

"It is insane however the rewards are there."

There are also frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more climate issues than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the bigger the deficit created 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 impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from using diesel in the very first place," stated Rob Bailey.

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

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, said it was conscious of the problems caused by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties in the world is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has actually enhanced the security of our diesel; it has actually decreased 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 difficult choices on how to move forward on this concern as it faces tripling the costs for drivers by 2020.

Insiders suggest its choice would be to try and get contract in Brussels on the impacts of indirect expenses which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from countries with powerful agricultural sectors who benefit from the existing plan will be challenging.

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

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