Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'
The UK's "irrational" use of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank states.
A report by Chatham House, external states the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food costs.
The author states that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel sources.
Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to make up 5% of the UK's transportation fuel from today.
Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel providers to add a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the petrol and diesel they supply. 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 states that reaching the 5% level means that UK drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.
The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to drivers is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.
"It is difficult to discover any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.
"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really expensive way to minimize carbon emissions," he stated.
The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting impacts in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.
"It creates a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at earnings,"
"It is insane however the rewards exist."
There are also frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is developing more climate issues than it fixes. 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 actually resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.
"Once you take into account these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive 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, stated it was conscious of the issues triggered by the required. But it believes that biofuels have many positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles in the world is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, job supervisor at the EBB.
"It has actually brought lots of advantages. It has improved the security of our diesel
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Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even Worse than Fossil Fuels'
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