REA FOCUS FEATURE Biofuels


The future of renewable liquid biofuels


Last year, a new government task force was set up to investigate biofuel policy, try and break past deadlocks, and attract investors in low carbon transport fuels back to the UK. But has it succeeded?


T


he UK’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which implements the transport elements of the EU Renewable Energy


Directive (RED), came into effect in April 2008. Almost immediately the policy came under fire because it was alleged that some biofuels were worse than fossil fuels because of potential indirect effects. These were things that occurred not during the production of the fuel, but as a knock-on effect. These are by definition difficult to measure with accuracy, and a great deal of time and money has been spent at UK and EU level without firm agreed conclusions being reached. In response, the government commissioned the Gallagher Review, which came out in July 2008 and recommended a dramatic slowdown in the RTFO. This had an almost immediate effect on the nascent UK biofuels industry, with many companies exiting the business or turning their attention to other countries.


Industry stagnation In 2010, the coalition government decided that the UK’s target could not exceed 4.75 percent (by volume, which is about 3.8 percent by energy) until these effects had been adequately dealt with in EU legislation. This policy position effectively condemned the UK industry to stagnation, as current investment sought to limit the damage caused and future investment was choked off. The European Commission (EC) put forward a set of proposals in October 2012, which included applying estimates of these indirect effects to reporting mechanisms under the directive,


12 REview Renewable Energy View 2015


and requiring that crop-based biofuels make up no more than half the 2020 target. These proposals set off a further storm of


controversy as the EU biofuels industry and the non-governmental organisation (NGO) community attempted to persuade decision makers in the European Parliament and the Council to support, strengthen, destroy or water down the proposals, depending on their particular point of view. Debates were heated and votes always very close. Industry after industry in the EU followed the UK in going into ‘hold’ mode until the future became clearer.


A new beginning The UK coalition government is no more, and the UK has a new Conservative government. It has become increasingly clear that the continued stagnation in biofuels policy, and the negative effect this has been having on UK industry, and potential investments in advanced biofuels, is untenable. Spurred on by industry, including the REA, the Department for Transport set up a Transport Energy Task Force in September 2014, with the remit to “formulate and examine options for how the UK should set about meeting the 2020 RED renewable transport target, and how low carbon fuels could help reduce transport greenhouse gas emissions in the UK economy to 2030 and beyond.” This remit recognises that liquid fuels will still be dominant in the transport sector to at least 2030. The task force included the fossil fuel, biofuel, aviation and agricultural industries, motor manufacturers, environmental NGOs and government departments. The aim of the


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It has become increasingly clear that


the continued stagnation in biofuels policy, and the negative effect this has been having on UK industry, and potential investments in advanced biofuels, is untenable.’


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