MPs call for biofuel moratorium

The campaign for a moratorium on biofuels secured influential backing today after the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) of MPs called for a ban on all biofuel targets.

The EU and the UK are currently working towards targets to ensure 10 per cent of all transport fuels come from renewable sources by 2020. However, a series of reports from various scientific and environmental groups have criticised the policy claiming that demand for biofuels has led to rising food prices and resulted in increased carbon emissions as forests have been cleared to make way for fuel crop plantations.

Now the EAC has endorsed these criticisms, claiming in its report Are Biofuels Sustainable? that "a large biofuel industry based on current technology is likely to increase food prices and could damage food security in developing countries".

The committee calls for the government to abandon its biofuel targets, introduce robust sustainability standards for those biofuels that are used to ensure they do not contribute to deforestation and increase focus on biofuels such as waste vegetable oil that have been proved to be sustainable.

"Biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport - but most biofuels have a detrimental impact on the environment overall," warned EAC chairman Tim Yeo. "The Government must ensure that its biofuels policy balances greenhouse gas emission cuts with wider environmental impacts, so that biofuels are only used where they contribute to sustainable emissions reductions."

The report also advises that without significant advances in the development of second generation biofuels such as algae and agricultural waste the government should instead focus its emission reduction efforts on more cost effective policies such as reforestation programmes. On the basis of current biofuel technology, more greenhouse gas cuts could be achieved at lower cost and risk by implementing a range of other policies," explained Yeo.