Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than fossil fuels'
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 states the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food costs.
The author says that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was even worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
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 materials into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.
Deep fried fuel
But research performed for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level means that UK motorists will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling more typically 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 most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.
"It is hard to discover any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.
"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really pricey way to lower carbon emissions," he said.
The EU biofuel mandates are likewise having hugely distorting impacts in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is related to as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.
"It creates a financial incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that sell it at profit,"
"It is insane however the rewards are there."
There are likewise frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is producing more climate problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the bigger the deficit produced 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 impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the first location," said Rob Bailey.
"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely irrational strategy."
Biofuel advantages
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, said it was aware of the problems brought on by the required. But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles worldwide is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.
"It has brought lots of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel; it has decreased 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 government faces some challenging choices on how to progress on this problem as it faces tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.
Insiders suggest its preference would be to attempt and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting agreement from nations with powerful agricultural sectors who benefit from the existing plan will be hard.
"When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is really difficult for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.
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