UK’s Gallagher Report calls for lowered biofuel targets; Euro Parliament votes to drop 2015 target to 4 percent

In England, the Gallagher report by Renewable Fuels Agency chairman Ed Gallagher was published, which credited first-generation biofuels with a potential to increase greenhouse gas emissions and increase global food prices. The report called for a focus on advanced biofuels and targeting of marginal land that it not suitable for food cultivation. It called for the lowering of targets in England’s Renewable Fuel Obligation. UK environmental minister Ruth Kelly endorsed the plan.

European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalg termed the report “one-sided” and said that the the EU target of 10 percent biofuels by 2020 requires only a 4 million tonne diversion of grains, out of a global production of 2,200 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament passed an amendment 36-0 which would lower the EU target yo 4 percent by 2015, and require another review before proceeding with a target of between 8 and 10 percent for 2020.

UK background: Renewable Fuel Transport Obligation

Researchers at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research said that Welsh ryegrass could supply up to 640 gallons of ethanol per acre and take Britain off fossil fuels within a 10 year period. The IGER research group said that ryegrass can be grown on marginal land unsuitable to food cultivation. is native to Wales, has minimal nitrogen inputs, and can produce up to three crops per year.

UK Tory party leader David Cameron said that Britain will feel a global “food crunch”, and that national food security was a vital national interest. He noted that the UK was 60% self-sufficient in food in 2008, compared to 72% in 1996, and that the average meat consumption in China has increased from 20 kilograms per person per year in 1985 to more than 50 kilograms today, and that Britain cannot count on other countries to make up for a domestic food shortage.

Recently, D1 Oils and several other Teeside biofuels companies protested a UK parliamentary committee report calling for a ban on biofuels over food cost and environmental concerns. D1 spokesmen said that the ban would serve to undermine companies in the ULK that are investing in sustainable, alternative crops such as jatropha that would cure the problems identified in the parliamentary report. Renewable energy accounts for 2 percent of total energy use in the UK, and the EU has proposed mandating a 15 percent level by 2020 with 10 percent to come from biofuels.

The UK Government recently revised its costs and carbon savings from the proposed implementation of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO). The cost has risen 87% to $760 per ton of carbon emission saved based on an estimated carbon savings of 700,000-800,000 tonnes. The RTFO imposes a 2.5 percent biofuel mandate in 2008, increasing to 5 percent in 2010.

Late last year, the government established a Renewable Fuels Agency to manage compliance with the RFTO, which takes effect in April 2008. The Obligation mandates that, by 2010, five per cent of all fuel sold in the UK must be from renewable sources.

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