Biofuels: 'Irrational' and '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 states.

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 environment than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to include a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the gas and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily 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 says that reaching the 5% level means that UK motorists will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more typically as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its commitments to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely expensive way to minimize carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting impacts in the market. Because used cooking oil is considered among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the rate for it has actually risen rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It creates a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, prepare a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy however the rewards exist."

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more environment problems than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into consideration these indirect results, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very first place," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable method."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, stated it knew the issues brought on by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems in the world is a bit too exaggerated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, job supervisor at the EBB.

"It has brought lots of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel