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Availability of biofuels in the future has been thrown into doubt following the publication of an independent review of the Government’s biofuel plans.

The review found that the Government’s target that 10% of all transport fuels must be biofuel by 2012 is too ambitious and needs to be revised down.

There has been a huge backlash against biofuel, with charities and NCOs accusing producers of destroying rain forests to grow the biofuel crops coupled with switching production from food to fuel crops.

Campaigners such as Friends of the Earth claim that this has, in part, led to the surge in world food prices.

Now the Renewable Fuels Agency’s review into the indirect effects of biofuel production, which was led by Professor Ed Gallagher, has said the Government must slow the introduction of biofuels until effective controls are in place to prevent land use change and higher food prices.

However, it also found that there is a future for a sustainable biofuels industry but creating the correct policy framework is “challenging and will take time”.

The report also warned that current policies, if left unchecked, “will reduce biodiversity and may even cause greenhouse gas emissions rather than savings”.

It also stated that the increasing demand for biofuels has contributed to the rising prices for some food commodities, notably oil seeds, which is having “detrimental effect on the poor”.

It recommends that whilst there is a place for biofuels, production must target idle and marginal land and the use of wastes and residues.

This would then avoid indirect land use change and reduce competition with food, it said.

Professor Gallagher said: “Our review makes clear that the risks of negative impacts from biofuels are real and significant, but it also lays out a path for a truly sustainable biofuels industry in the future.”

However, his recommendations do not go far enough, in the view of Friends of the Earth.

The charity has urged the Government to reconsider its biofuels obligation altogether, rather than just “tinkering” at the margins.

“Feeding cars instead of people pushes up food prices and fuels deforestation,” said Friends of the Earth spokesman Kenneth Richter.

“If we want to quit our expensive and damaging fossil fuel habit we need a new direction in transport - not a quick fix from biofuels.

“Instead of chasing the pipe dream of alternative fuels, the Government must ditch these targets and start helping Britons save petrol and cut emissions now.”

Trade show will focus on sustainability and future feedstocks.

Rather surprisingly, the Gallagher report received a warm reception from the biofuels industry.

“Far from being bad news for the industry, the report confirms that biofuels have their role to play, but we must proceed with caution and make sure that biofuels are made from sustainable sources,” said Richard Price, director of Biofuels Media.

If all drivers adhered to the 70mph speed limit on motorways and dual carriageways, it is estimated that 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 would be saved every year.

This equates to a saving of 0.8 billion litres of road fuel.

According to analysis for the Government’s Climate Change Programme Review, if petrol cost 116p per litre and diesel 129p, the value of the fuel saving would be £1 billion!

With pump prices now past this mark, the savings for fleets that insist – through schemes such as driver education and telematic observation – that every driver observes the speed limit, the savings would be enormous.

“However, this fuel saving would only occur at significant costs in enforcing the speed limit,” said transport minister, Jim Fitzpatrick.

“Enforcement of motorway speed limits does save fuel, but enforcement is done primarily for road safety reasons.”

The new law increasing the level of biofuel that must be included in petrol and diesel at a minimum of 2.5% has now come into force in the UK.

The Government lauded the move as a way to allow motorists to be “able to fill their tanks with greener fuels”.

However, as soon as it came into force on April 15, critics said the new law will actually do more harm than good.

Environmental campaign group, Greenpeace, said the new rules will “drive rainforest destruction and could actually accelerate global warming”.

Senior forests campaigner Belinda Fletcher explained: “Right now, rainforests are being destroyed to make way for biofuel crops in places like Indonesia.

“This destruction leads to massive greenhouse gas emissions and completely undermines the point of these so called green fuels.”

The RSPB and Oxfam have also raised concerns about the new law.

“Some biofuel production will cause habitat loss, displace food production and emit more greenhouse gases than are being saved,” warned Graham Wynne, RSPB chief executive.

Oxfam called the new law “reckless” stating that there are also links between biofuel production and human rights abuses, slave labour and rising global food prices.

Despite growing evidence against biofuel use, the Government has pushed ahead and introduced the law as part of its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).

This obligation should see all road fuels sold here contain 5% of biofuel by 2010, which will bring the UK in line with European legislation.

However, motorists can still avoid putting biofuel into their vehicles.

In a move that was supposed to protect suppliers against fluctuations in biofuel prices, the Government has given fuel suppliers the option to pay a ‘buy out’ price in respect of some or all of their biofuel obligation.

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesman confirmed that a fuel supplier can buy its way out of having to add biofuels to its fuel.

The DfT could not say as to whether any fuel supplier has decided to exercise this option yet.

In defence of the new law, which is predicted by the Government to save 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2010, a DfT spokesman said: “The UK has gone further than any other country to give fuel suppliers a real incentive to produce sustainable biofuels that do not harm the environment.

“Suppliers are required to produce sustainability reports including information on where their biofuel crops come from and the level of carbon savings they will achieve.”

But Greenpeace pointed out that the reporting process is not strong enough.

“Suppliers are only required to “report” the details of the crops they are using - a process which can be easily manipulated to hide the true origin of environmentally damaging crops like palm oil,” said a spokesman.

Government ministers rallied together to support the law amid the growing criticism.

“Emissions from transport need to go down if we are to make serious headway in tackling dangerous climate change and this initiative has the potential to deliver considerable carbon savings,” said Phil Woolas, Minister for the Environment.

“Obviously sustainability needs to be at the heart of all biofuel production.

“We must be able to produce biofuel without causing a negative impact on our natural environment.”

Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick added: “We must do all we can to ensure biofuels are produced sustainably.

“We know people are concerned about the environmental risks associated with expanding biofuel production and we take those concerns very seriously”.

An extra £24 million has been allocated by the Department for Transport (DFT) in an effort to improve the safety of international trucks entering the UK.

As part of the initiative, goods vehicles crossing Britain’s borders will now face more stringent safety checks.

The £24m will fund a 50% increase in the number of HGV checks and also allow the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) to open two new enforcement sites.

DFT figures show that HGVs from overseas are more likely to be unroadworthy, overloaded or being driven in excess of drivers’ hours rules than their UK counterparts.

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said “We are determined to clamp down on unsafe trucks. More inspectors undertaking more checks at more sites will make our roads safer for everyone”.

Additional penalty regimes will also be introduced including fixed penalties, on-the-spot fines and seizing foreign HGVs.

Environmental campaigners have called for the government to cancel plans to introduce biofuels at the petrol pumps next month over concerns they may actually cause more pollution than than fossil fuels. The RSPB has urged members of the public to email Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly and request she supsends the introduction of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), due on April 15th, which will mean at least 2.5% of every litre of fuel sold will be biofuel.

It stated: “Swathes of important habitat have been decimated and the survival of many species has been threatened due to the expansion of worldwide biofuels production - an expansion that has been driven by the thoughtless policies of governments around the world. In many cases, what is produced does not even deliver greenhouse gas savings - some are even more polluting than the fossil fuels they are meant to replace.”

It added that safeguards needed to be in place to prove biofuels could be produced sustainably and help combat climate change.

The criticisms came as Kelly invited the UK’s (newly formed) Renewable Fuels Agency to lead the study on the “wider economic and environmental impacts - particularly the indirect impacts - of different forms of biofuel production”. In a statement, the DfT said the results of the study would help form the development of UK and EU policies in the area, and “underpin the considerations of EU biofuel targets after 2010″.

The current government biofuel targets following on from this April are 3.75% in 2009, and 5% by 2010/11. But there are no rules at present on how and where this biofuel should be produced.

Kelly said: “There has been much recent debate around the risks associated with overly rapid expansion of biofuel production, with evidence now emerging on the indirect, or ‘displacement’ impacts, of growing demand for agricultural production around the world. The UK government takes this issue very seriously. We are not prepared to go beyond current UK target levels for biofuels until we are satisfied it can be done sustainably.”