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Government pressure to make fuel greener increased last week when a regulation came into force requiring fuel companies to ensure at least 2.5% of their sales are biofuels.

The move, known as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), is expected to save 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2010, when the percentage of fuel sales required to be biofuel will rise to 5%.

But the measure comes at a time when some critics are raising fears that biofuels may cause more environmental  difficulties than they solve. Several critics have argued that the pressure to grow more energy crops for fuel production means that less food is grown and food prices are forced up. Oxfam has also said that some subsistence farmers have been moved from their land in order to make way for biofuel plantations.

Friends of the Earth is so concerned that it is calling on the European Union to scrap the target it has set for 2010 when it wants 10% of all fuel sales in the EU to be biofuels.

Despite these criticisms, the government has insisted that biofuels will play a crucial role in cutting carbon emissions. It says the answer is producing biofuels without affecting food supply.

DfT minister Jim Fitzpatrick says: "We know people are concerned about the environmental risks associated with expanding biofuel production and we take those very seriously. That is why we want to introduce mandatory standards as soon as possible to guarantee that biofuels don't cause deforestation  or food shortages."