Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'

The UK's "unreasonable" use 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 rates.

The author says that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was worse for the climate than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel suppliers to include a growing proportion of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study performed for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK motorists will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year because of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report state that if the UK is to meet its responsibilities to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

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

The EU are also having hugely distorting results in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered one of 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 produces a monetary reward to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that sell it at earnings,"

"It is insane but the rewards are there."

There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more climate problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into vehicles the larger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into account these indirect impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the 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 technique."

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, stated it understood the problems triggered by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems worldwide is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

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