Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'
The UK's "unreasonable" usage of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank states.
A report by Chatham House, external says the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food costs.
The author states that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the climate than nonrenewable fuel sources.
Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to make up 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 petrol and diesel they supply. These are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.
Deep fried fuel
But research brought out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK motorists will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy material.
The report say that if the UK is to satisfy its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to motorists is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.
"It is difficult to find any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.
"Biofuels increase expenses and they are a really expensive method to minimize carbon emissions," he stated.
The EU biofuel requireds are also having hugely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually risen quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.
"It produces a financial reward 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 insane but the rewards are there."
There are likewise stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more climate issues than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put 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 veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the first place," said Rob Bailey.
"Plus you are asking vehicle drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely illogical strategy."
Biofuel benefits
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external across the EU, said it understood the problems triggered by the required. But it believes that biofuels have lots of positives.
"Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.
"It has actually brought great deals of benefits. It has improved the security of our diesel
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Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even Worse than Fossil Fuels'
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