The government has finally announced a consultation into the UK’s target for renewable fuel use set by the European Union.
The Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation which requires the UK to replace 5% of its oil usage with renewable sources by 2010 was originally announced
in 2005. Transport minister Stephen Ladyman has blamed the ‘glacial speed’ of the EU for the delay between the RTFO being published and a consultation into how the UK achieves it.
The Chancellor announced in the 2006 Budget that the RTFO would start in April 2008 when 2.5% of all fuel sold on UK forecourts will come from a renewable source, rising to 3.75% in 2009 and 5% in 2010. The RTFO target is expected to account for one million tonne reduction in carbon per year.
The consultation focuses on:
The detailed design of the scheme and which suppliers will be affected;
How suppliers of renewable fuel would report on the carbon savings and wider impacts of those fuels;
How the RTFO might develop after 2010/11
Five per cent of diesel use in the UK constitutes one million tonnes; so far existing feedstocks can account for possibly 70% of these, including rape seed, used cooking oil and animal tallows. However virgin products such as soya and rape are also primary foodstuffs making them expensive and their supply heavily contested. It is likely that imported biostock such as soya or jatropha would be required to make up the reminder of the diesel replacement.
Ladyman told CM the government had refrained from incentivising biofuels because it did not want industry to rush into unsustainable practices such as the use of palm oil, which has been grown at the expense of the Amazon rain forest.
However, it is not necessary for the RTFO to be met specifically from diesel. Petrol substitute ethanol will soon be available from large plants in the South which will produce fuel from sugar beet.
