Biofuels: 'Irrational' and '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 says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will likewise increase food costs.

The author states that biodiesel made from veggie oil was worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually needed fuel suppliers to include a growing percentage of sustainable products into the gas and diesel they provide. These biofuels are generally ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research study carried out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from up more often as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say 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 tough to find any excellent news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a really expensive method to lower carbon emissions," he said.

The EU biofuel requireds are likewise having hugely distorting impacts in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the price for it has increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion 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 utilized cooking oil and then sell it at profit,"

"It is insane but the incentives exist."

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more environment problems than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the larger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect impacts, biofuels made from vegetable oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from utilizing diesel in the first location," said Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally irrational strategy."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, said it understood the problems triggered by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties in the world is a bit too exaggerated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.

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