Government Starts to U-Turn on Biofuels

In what might be viewed as a considerable turnaround by the government, they seem to have switched their standing on the issue of biofuels.

A couple of years ago it was their cure-all for our motoring ills and they proposed big increases in biofuel crop growing and usage.

Now they do not seem to be so keen, in fact Andrew Adonis is backpedaling on biofuels as his first major action since becoming the head of the government’s Transport ministry.

Now instead of spearheading the fuel saving campaign, biofuels will only “have a role to play”.

He was announcing a new public consultation on pushing back the upcoming deadline for fuel to be 5% renewable, by 2011. The new proposal is 2014.

Part of the reason for this change of heart is the Gallagher Review, a report that suggested that although biofuels would work, and would attain emissions goals, the price paid in deforestation and rampant food price inflation would just be too high.

Another aspect is that biofuels don’t just happen, they have to be produced in chemical plants.

These plants run on power produced by coal and gas, and this is not cheap in ecological terms.

The hope is that in the next few years other production methods will come online, such as biofuel from sewage and rubbish mixing that are to a large extent self producing.

Other studies have recently pointed out that there is simply not enough land in the world for both food and fuel production.

As we have been struggling to feed the world for decades, it is strange that the government has only just recognized this fact.

In the last year, UK food prices have risen 25%. Some of that was due to oil price rises and some is down to increased land usage for biofuel crops.

In counties such as Brazil huge swathes of farmland are being developed for biofuel production. The only way to find the extra land is by cutting down the rainforests.

As part of a new initiative, the Carbon Trust is to benefit from an additional £6m for more sustainable fuels research.

They and others are looking into all kinds of alternative fuel sources from hydrogen to electric power.