Biofuels: Irrational And Worse Than Fossil Fuels: Porovnání verzí

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


The UK's "illogical" 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 states the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food prices.


The author says that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was even 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 required fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.


Deep fried fuel


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


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


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


"Biofuels increase costs and they are an extremely costly way to lower carbon emissions," he said.


The EU biofuel requireds are also having hugely distorting in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has increased quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.


"It develops a financial incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then offer it at revenue,"


"It is crazy but the rewards exist."


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


"Once you take into account these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the first place," stated Rob Bailey.


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


Biofuel benefits


The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, said it knew the issues brought on by the mandate. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.


"Blaming biofuels for all the problems worldwide is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.


"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has actually lowered EU dependency on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel."


"If there was no biodiesel farmers would simply make their land idle - no food, no feed!"


As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some difficult choices on how to move forward on this issue as it deals with tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.


Insiders recommend its choice would be to try and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with effective agricultural sectors who gain from the current plan will be challenging.


"When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is very tough for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.


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