last updated 18th November 05
by 4ecotips.com

Saving 1m tons of CO2

The UK will require 5% of all car fuel sold to come from biofuels by 2010, a 20-fold increase from today's level, to help tackle climate change linked to emissions from fossil fuels, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling says: "The measure will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 1 million metric tons by 2010. The equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road."

The European Union has set a biofuel target of 5.75% of all gasoline and diesel sold by 31 December 2010. The European Commission, the 25-nation bloc's executive arm, had threatened to take the U.K. and some other member states to the European Court for failing to meet their biofuel obligations.

The Kyoto Protocol binds 35 industrialized nations and the EU to cut emissions of gases blamed for higher world temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent heat waves, floods and storms. The U.S., the world's largest producer of the gases, refused to ratify the 1997 pact.

Record oil prices in the past year have also added to demand for biodiesel and ethanol as cheaper fuel alternatives. Biodiesel is based on vegetable oils obtained from crushing palm, rapeseed and soybeans, or animal fat. Ethanol can be made from cereals, sugar beet and sugar cane.

Several EU countries subsidize use of biodiesel and ethanol through tax incentives. The U.K. has a 20 pence-a-liter tax break, which has boosted sales to about 10 million liters a month, about 0.25% of all automobile fuel sales.

Archer Daniels Midland Co., the world's largest grain processor and maker of ethanol, and Cargill Inc., the biggest agricultural company, have both announced plans to build biodiesel plants in Germany.

Biofuels Corporation Plc. and Greenergy Fuels Ltd. are both building U.K. biodiesel plants.

Biofuels expects to start operating its 250,000 metric-ton- a-year-plant in Middlesborough, northeast England, by the end of the year, using imported palm oil as a feedstock. Greenergy, which is 25% owned by Tesco Plc, Britain's biggest retailer, is building a 100,000 metric-ton-a-year plant at Immingham, east England, using domestically grown rapeseed. Production is due to begin in the second half of 2006.

British Sugar, a unit of Associated British Foods Plc, plans to build the UK's first ethanol plant beside its Wissington sugar beet factory in Norfolk, east England. The plant is intended to produce 55,000 tons of ethanol a year from sugar beet, starting in 2007.

The UK says it will issue certificates to oil companies showing how much biofuel they have sold. If the company sells more than its 5% obligation, it would be able to sell the certificates to other companies that need to meet the obligation.