Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'
The UK's "irrational" usage 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 dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.
The author says that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was 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 required fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the petrol 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 performed for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level means that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost 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 responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.
"It is difficult to find any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.
"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a very costly way to decrease carbon emissions," he said.
The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting effects in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has increased quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.
"It produces a monetary incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"
"It is insane but the incentives are there."
There are also worries 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 taken into automobiles the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.
"Once you consider these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using 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 a completely illogical strategy."
Biofuel advantages
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, said it understood the issues brought on by the required. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.
"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel; it has 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 federal government deals with some challenging decisions on how to progress on this problem as it faces tripling the expenses for vehicle drivers by 2020.
Insiders suggest its preference would be to attempt and get arrangement in Brussels on the effects of indirect expenses which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from countries with powerful farming sectors who gain from the present plan will be hard.
"When you have a lobby that includes the farming sector and the oil sector it is really tough for Governments to make a U-turn," stated Rob Bailey.
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