Biofuel selectivity key to greenhouse reduction

Biofuels could fail to deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and may even be environmentally damaging unless the Government puts the right policies in place warns a new Royal Society report.

The greenhouse gas savings of each biofuel depends on how crops are grown and converted

They caution that the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which comes into force in April 2008, does not necessarily encourage the use of the types of biofuels with the best greenhouse gas savings. This is because, although the Obligation requires fuel suppliers to ensure that 5% of all UK fuels sold are from a renewable source by 2010, it does not contain a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Professor John Pickett, who chaired the Royal Society biofuels study, said: “The Government must ensure that the RTFO promotes fuels with the lowest emissions by, for example, setting a greenhouse gas reduction target. This will help encourage the improvement of existing fuels and accelerate the development of new ones. Without a target we risk missing important opportunities to stimulate exciting innovations that will help us cut our spiralling transport emissions.”

The report - Sustainable Biofuels: prospects and challenges - also recommends that the RTFO be extended for 20 years in order to stimulate the kind of long term investment necessary to foster a strong UK biofuels industry. It warns that without the right support, including of the research and development community, there is a risk that we will miss out on developing the biofuels that could bring greater benefits and that we could become locked in to using inefficient biofuels.

John Pickett said: “In designing policies and incentives to encourage investment in and the use of biofuels it is important to remember that one biofuel is not the same as another. The greenhouse gas savings of each depends on how crops are grown and converted and how the fuel is used. So, indiscriminately increasing the amount of biofuels we are using may not automatically lead to the best reductions in emissions.”