Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'

The UK's "irrational" usage of biofuels will cost 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 also increase food rates.

The author says that biodiesel made from grease was 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 required fuel providers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly 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 indicates that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up more typically as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say that if the UK is to satisfy its commitments to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

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

The EU biofuel requireds are likewise having extremely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is considered as among the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then sell it at profit,"

"It is crazy but the incentives exist."

There are likewise stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more climate issues than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into vehicles the bigger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had resulted in increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very first place," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely unreasonable method."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external across the EU, said it knew the problems triggered by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have lots of positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought great deals of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel