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Commons Environment Audit Committee publishes critical report on renewable transport fuels obligation
21st January 2008
A report on the implications of the Government’s renewable transport fuels obligation, “Are biofuels sustainable?”, was published this morning, as the Environmental Audit Committee's First Report of Session 2007-08, HC 76. According to Committee Chairman Tim Yeo MP, interviewed by the BBC this morning, the report concludes that currently available biofuels have an overall negative environmental impact, and cut transport CO2 emissions much more expensively than alternative measures.
Copies of the report can be obtained from TSO outlets and from the Parliamentary Bookshop, 12 Bridge Street, Parliament Square, London SW1A 2JX () by quoting House of Commons No. 76. The text will be available on the Committee's homepage from 12.00pm approximately, today: www.parliament.uk/eacom.
In a draft of its revised energy policy due this week, the European Commission is reported to admit that the current target of 5.75% biofuels on the EU's roads by 2010 is unlikely to be achieved, while maintaining its target of 10% road biofuel by 2020. The Commission recently published sustainability criteria for biofuels, stipulating that whether home-grown or imported - as much would need to be to meet the EU’s targets - biofuel crops should not be grown in forest, wetland or permanent grassland areas.
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) announced in July last year its inquiry into biofuels and the role that they might play in addressing the key issues of fuel security and climate change. This inquiry followed the publication of the United Nations report Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision Makers.
- With diesel already costing over £1 per litre at the pump, over 700 businesses have called on the Chancellor to scrap the planned 2p fuel duty escalator due to take place in April, which they calculate will cost the haulage industry £170m and make British logistics firms uncompetitive with their mainland European counterparts.
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