A new report from the independent scientific group, the Royal Society, has warned that, without the right government policies, biofuels risk failing to deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from transport and could even be environmentally damaging.

The report Sustainable Biofuels: prospects and challenges cautions that the UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which requires fuel suppliers to ensure that five per cent of all UK fuels sold are from a renewable source by 2010, lacks a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The RTFO is the UK’s implementation of the EU Biofuels Directive, which also fails to include a greenhouse gas target. As a result, the report suggests the Directive will do more for economic development and energy security than combating climate change.

SUSTAINABLE SYTSTEM
The report adds that biofuels are not the ‘silver bullet’ for meeting the rising demand for transport while tackling emissions. Delivering a sustainable transport system will require combining biofuels with other developments including the improved design of vehicles and engines, increased use of public transport and better urban and rural planning to encourage, for example, walking and the use of bicycles.

Professor John Pickett, who chaired the biofuels study agreed that they could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, since cars, lorries and domestic air travel are responsible for 25 per cent of all the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and are growing faster than for any other sector.

REDUCTION TARGET
"The Government must ensure that the RTFO promotes fuels with the lowest emissions by, for example, setting a greenhouse gas reduction target," he said. "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."

20 YEAR EXTENSION FOR RTFO
The report also recommends that the RTFO be extended for 20 years in order to stimulate long term investment in a strong UK biofuels industry. It warns that without the right support, including of the research and development community, we could miss out on developing more beneficial biofuels and become ‘locked in’ to inefficient ones.

"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," Prof Pickett went on.

"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."

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
The report calls for biofuels to be assessed and certified for the greenhouse gas savings they will deliver, as well as their positive and negative social and environmental impacts.

"We must not create new environmental or social problems in our efforts to deal with climate change. Indeed, while the RTFO is a reasonable start, unless certification is applied to the production of all biofuels and is a system used by all countries we will merely displace rather than remedy the potentially negative effects of these fuels," Prof Pickett concluded.