UK: Biofuels will speed climate change, chief scientist says

Professor Robert Watson spoke out just days before Westminster is to introduce a policy dictating minimum levels of the fuels at the pumps.

He said it would “obviously be totally insane” to have a scheme aimed at reducing greenhouse gases by using biofuels, which instead led to an increase in emissions, and suggested a further review.
Prof Watson, chief scientist at the Department for the Environment, said the environmental sustainability of the biofuels needed verification.

“I think it’s now indeed clear that while some sources of biofuels do appear to be potentially sustainable from an environmental point of view, others certainly are not,” he said. And he called for a “willingness now to re-examine the situation before we go any further”.

Meanwhile yesterday, a coalition of the country’s leading environmental and development groups wrote a collective letter to the government warning that its strategy risked doing more harm than good.

Oxfam, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and others told Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, there was “a very real risk that the RTFO will make climate change worse, not better”.

Scotsman