Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘Worse than Fossil Fuels’

Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘even worse than fossil fuels’

The UK’s “illogical” 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 also increase food prices.

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

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually needed fuel providers to add a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the gas and diesel they provide. These biofuels are generally from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK motorists will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the greater expense 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 commitments to EU energy targets the expense to drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

“Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely costly way to lower carbon emissions,” he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting results in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is regarded as one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has risen quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

“It creates a monetary reward to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at profit,”

“It is insane however the incentives exist.”

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more environment problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars the bigger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had actually resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

“Once you consider these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing 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 an entirely illogical technique.”

Biofuel benefits

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

“Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties worldwide is a bit too exaggerated,” said Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.

“It has brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has lowered EU dependence 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 faces some challenging decisions on how to move on on this issue as it faces tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.

Insiders suggest its preference would be to attempt and get contract in Brussels on the impacts of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from nations with effective agricultural sectors who gain from the present arrangement will be tough.

“When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is really tough for Governments to make a U-turn,” stated Rob Bailey.

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