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 says.

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

The author says that biodiesel made from grease 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 needed fuel suppliers to include a growing proportion of sustainable materials into the gas and diesel they supply. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the higher expense of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly 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 drivers is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really costly method to minimize carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting impacts in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the rate for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more pricey than refined palm oil.

"It produces a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at revenue,"

"It is crazy however the rewards are there."

There are likewise worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more environment problems than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the bigger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had actually caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you take into account these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie oils really 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 completely irrational strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, stated it was mindful of the problems triggered by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties in the world is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has actually improved the security of our diesel