Government underestimated biofuels costs by £224 million

The cost to motorists of putting biofuels into petrol will be as much as £224 million more each year than the government estimated, says ActionAid. According to ActionAid-commissioned research by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the government has underestimated the additional costs of biofuels due to inadequate price projection models used by various departments to calculate costs. This extra cost is in addition to the £1-£1.8 billion extra cost to motorists as a result of the UK's biofuels policies that IISD already documented in 2012.

The EU’s renewable energy target, which requires 10 per cent of all energy used in EU transport to come from renewable sources by 2020, promotes biofuels as a greener alternative to fossil fuels. But some research has shown that rather than cutting greenhouse gas emissions many biofuels increase them. IIDS estimates that the EU’s biofuels policy could create carbon emissions equivalent to putting 26 million new cars on our roads by 2020.