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Britain's chief environment scientist has called on the government to postpone their policy of making biofuel a mandatory component in petrol until after an inquiry into the sustainability of biofuels.
The Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) is to introduce 2.5 percent biofuels at petrol pumps across the United Kingdom from 1 April.
The BBC reports that Professor Robert Watson has called ministers to await the results of their inquiry into biofuels' sustainability, saying it would be insane if the RTFO had the opposite effects of the ones intended.
He said biofuels policy in Britain and the European Union may have run ahead of the science and the biofuels' carbon benefits may be currently outweighed by negative effects from their production.
A coalition of pressure groups from Oxfam to Greenpeace has written to the Department for Transport (DfT) demanding that the policy be delayed until after the review.
The DfT is itself under pressure from an EU policy demanding the inclusion of 5 percent biofuels in road fuels by 2010 in an attempt to cut carbon emissions.
Some scientists fear the impact of biofuels on food prices, while others say the carbon debt incurred from carbon released from ploughing virgin soil often outweighed any potential carbon saving from the biofuels.
(c) NewsRoom 2008
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