Reports from the Renewable Fuels Agency have warned that using bio-fuel in vehicles may be having adverse effects on the environment. A watchdog recently reported that the use of bio-fuels could actually be helping to destroy the rain forest rather than saving it. Enquiries also point to the possible rise in pump prices due to the Government’s policy of ensuring fuel companies add bio-fuels to stand along side petrol and diesel.
Over 1 million hectares of land was used in Britain to contribute approximately 2 per cent of the required fuel last year.
This is a relatively new initiative enforced by the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, one that is in place to shepherd a growing proportion of bio-fuel into the UK fuel market. On average, 3.25 per cent of fuel must be renewably sourced this year. And by 2020, this figure will rise to 13 per cent. Although this is a positive step for the renewable fuel markets, its immediate impact on consumers may increase fuels prices quite considerably.
The Renewable Fuels Agency revealed that leading fuel companies had previously exploited a loophole which excused them from reporting the exact source of almost 50% of the bio-fuel they supplied to filling stations last year. In 2009, Esso identified the source of only 6 per cent of its bio-fuel and BP, with a similarly low figure, reported only 27 per cent. This activity has been subscribed to the somewhat loose practise that fuel companies are able to describe fuel origin as “unknown” if it is from recently cleared land.
Grey areas such as these need to become a clear Green before 2020, where over a tenth of fuel will be required to have come from renewable sources – a reality which requires the significant adoption of large patches of land. The agency’s concerns over the “unknown” areas of last year’s reports stem from the threat of a net release of carbon. Such carbon release may have been detrimental to last year’s bio-fuel savings as a whole if, for instance, even a small percentage of the “unknown” land was carbon-rich grassland or forestland.
Another concern that has been flagged by recent reports is the method that some companies have partaken in to ensure they achieve bio-fuel targets.
A majority of fuel companies have been keeping up their bio-fuel obligation by buying large quantities of palm oil. Although palm oil is a relatively cheap alternative it is also, potentially, one of the most threatening to the environment due to the carbon-release caused by deforestation in order to create plantations. The Renewable Fuels Agency added that industry leaders had failed to invest in more expensive, sustainable palm oil and have thus stimulated rather dubious areas of the renewable field.
This news comes at the same time, under a European directive, that from March 2011 fuel companies will receive another get-out-clause; that being, fuel firms will not be required to declare using rain forest land if the trees were removed before 2008.
