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

The UK's "illogical" usage of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

A report by Chatham House, external states the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from veggie oil was even 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 add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the petrol 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 carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more often as biofuels have a lower energy material.

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

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very expensive method to reduce carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting effects in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as among the most of biodiesel, the rate for it has increased quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that sell it at earnings,"

"It is insane but the incentives exist."

There are likewise 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 taken into vehicles the larger 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 take into account these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from utilizing diesel in the very first place," said Rob Bailey.

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

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, stated it understood the issues caused 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 great deals of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel