Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'

The UK's "unreasonable" usage 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 prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil was worse for the climate 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 providers to include a growing proportion of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study carried out for Chatham House states 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 regularly as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report say that if the UK is to fulfill its obligations to EU energy targets the cost to drivers is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

"It is tough to discover any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really expensive way to decrease carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having extremely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has increased quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

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

"It is crazy but the incentives are there."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more climate problems than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the larger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, frequently produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into account these indirect impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally illogical strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it understood the issues caused by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles worldwide is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.

"It has brought great deals of advantages. It has actually improved the security of our diesel