UK biofuel agency insists industry is on track to sustainability

The UK's Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA) has today maintained it is making good progress towards meeting the government's targets for sustainable biofuel use, despite new figures revealing a number of high profile biofuel firms have failed to provide the Agency with any information on the origin or environmental credentials of the fuel they sell.

The first quarterly report from the RFA since its formation earlier this year, reveals that the UK is on track to meet the government's biofuel targets for the year through to April 2009.

However, it also confirmed that some biofuel firms are failing to provide the RFA with requested information, while one of the world's largest energy firms, Chevron, reported its fuel may only be delivering very low carbon savings.

During the first quarter, biofuels accounted for 2.61 per cent of road fuel, ahead of the 2.5 per cent target, while the resulting carbon reduction of 44 per cent compared to conventional fuel was ahead of the targets of 40 per cent.

Only 20 per cent of biofuels were certified as meeting environmental sustainability standards, which cover the preservation of carbon stores, the preservation of biodiversity, and the impact of biofuel plantations and processing on air, water and soil quality. But RFA spokesman Chris Malins said that with growing numbers of biofuel plantations gaining the sustainability accreditation, the government's 30 per cent target for the full year was achievable.

The report claimed that the RFA also managed to collect 61 per cent of the data it required from biofuel providers across four categories – feedstock, country of origin, whether or not sustainability standards were met, and how land-use was affected – exceeding the government's 50 per cent target.

"It's early days, but the signs are encouraging that we will meet the data capture target, the greenhouse gas savings targets and the overall biofuel use target, and we're on track with the other targets," said Malins.

However, the biofuel sector can still expect to attract criticism from environmental groups after Chevron reported its biofuel had only delivered "low levels of carbon savings".

The poor performance was attributed to the company's reporting that some of its EU-derived rape biodiesel came from agricultural grassland, which carries a carbon penalty. The oil giant is now checking whether its suppliers did plant rape seed on grassland, or whether the land was previously "set aside", in which case RTFO reporting guidelines mean there is no carbon penalty and the official savings delivered by the company's biofuel will increase significantly.

The RFA report also revealed that a number of biofuel firms have failed to provide the Agency with much of the data designed to ensure that biofuels are being sourced from environmentally sustainable plantations, and are not contributing to deforestation and increased carbon emissions.

The quarterly report found that while Harvest Energy and Mabanaft are exceeding the sustainability target, BP, Esso, Murco, Prax and Topaz, have so far failed to report any biofuels as meeting the environmental standards. Prax and Topaz have also failed to report on the origin of their biofuels.

Malins defended the performance of those companies that had yet to supply any data on sustainable biofuels, claiming that they were likely to meet sustainability targets as supplies of certified biofuels increase.

"There are limitations on the amount of certified feedstock available at the moment, but the vision is that the targets will help drive a market for these feedstocks," he said. "The fact that some firms haven't met the targets yet is to be expected."

He also argued that it was not unusual for firms to be uncertain where their biofuel originated from as it was still difficult to track the origins of vegetable oils bought on the open market.

However, Malins insisted that demand for more detailed data was driving improvements in biofuel traceability across the market and insisted that while the sustainability targets were only voluntary, the industry was committed to meeting them. "There is a feeling the sustainability targets will be made mandatory, most likely in April 2010 as part of the EU Renewable Energy Directive, so biofuel understand that it makes sense to start doing this now," he said.