UK Government prepares for RTFO consultation

The UK Government is preparing to consult on legislative changes to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) this year.

In correspondence published this week, Patrick McLoughlin, the UK's Transport Secretary, set out plans to decarbonise the UK's transport sector in a letter to Energy and Climate Change Committee chair Angus Brendan.

This includes plans for a proposed trajectory for increasing the supply of renewable transport fuel to meet the UK's renewable energy targets.

The RTFO supports the government's policy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by encouraging the production of biofuels that do not damage the environment.

Introduced in 2008, the RFTO requires that 4.75% of suppliers' fuel is from a renewable source (ethanol). Most of this ethanol is largely derived from crops.

'Displacing petrol'
There is a European Union (EU) requirement for 10% of transport fuel to be renewable by 2020.

A Transport Energy Taskforce set up by the Department last year concluded that "displacing petrol with higher bioethanol levels" such as E10 (10% ethanol and 90% petrol) would "probably be required" to meet the EU target, as well as increased levels of biodiesel in diesel fuels.

McLoughlin cited the Committee on Climate Change's assessment that the RTFO will need to reviewed in the light of the EU agreement on Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC).

In July 2015, the EU Agricultural and Fisheries Council finally agreed measures to address ILUC impacts associated with certain crop-based biofuels.

According to McLoughlin, it was because of genuine concerns over emissions associated with ILUC that the UK both held targets under the RTFO and pressed for ILUC factors to be included in mandatory sustainability criteria as part of those EU negotiations.

The Government will be looking at options on how to meet the EU requirements by shifting from crop-based biofuels towards renewable fuel from waste.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "Biofuels have a role to play in keeping Britain moving but to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions they must be truly sustainable.

"We don't want to see vast amounts of food crops being used as fuel, which is why the government is encouraging the development of fuels derived from waste, including £25m to support three new waste biofuel plants across the UK."

However, this plan has come under criticism from transport experts who claim that families will have to pay more for their petrol.

Rob Bailey, of the think tank Chatham House, told the Daily Telegraph he estimated that "the incremental cost for a UK family could be around £40 a year for that strategy" because the fuels were less efficient.

Elsewhere, Lembit Opik, the former MP and now director of communications for the Motorcycle Action Group, said bikers were concerned that E10 fuel would reduce performance, increase fuel consumption and so increase cost, as well as risking damage to engines.