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 states.

A report by Chatham House, external says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also prices.

The author states that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was worse for the environment 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 actually required fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the fuel 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 brought out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the greater 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 obligations to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely costly method to decrease carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having hugely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is considered among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has actually increased quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It creates a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at earnings,"

"It is insane but the rewards exist."

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is developing more environment issues than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie 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 motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable technique."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, said it knew the issues caused by the required. But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.

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

"It has brought great deals of benefits. It has actually enhanced the security of our diesel; it has actually decreased EU reliance 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 government deals with some challenging decisions on how to move on on this issue as it deals with tripling the expenses for motorists by 2020.

Insiders suggest its choice would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with effective farming sectors who gain from the present plan will be tough.

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

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