Plea to scrap 'misguided' biofuel subsidies and save trees instead

Published on Monday 25 August 2008 22:02

THE government should stop funding subsidies for biofuels and instead use the money to stop the destruction of rainforests and peatland to tackle climate change, a think tank says today.

The "misjudged" biofuels targets had forced up food prices and led to an increase in deforestation, and should be abandoned, the report says.

The 550 million-a-year cost in lost revenue of the government's aim of having biofuels make up 5 per cent of fuel sold on forecourts could be better spent on avoiding deforestation, claims the Policy Exchange.

The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) target would save between 2.6 and 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. But investment to prevent the destruction of peatland or rainforests could bring a "50 times greater amount of avoided emission" because the habitats act as a store of carbon which is released into the atmosphere when burned.

The right-leaning think tank says tropical deforestation contributed around 20 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions – similar to the amounts generated by the United States and China.

Ben Caldecott, head of the environment unit at Policy Exchange and editor of the report, said: "The research is clear – if developed countries spent the same amount of money on preventing deforestation and the destruction of peatlands as they do on misguided biofuel subsidies (7.5 billion], this would halve the total costs of tackling climate change.

"In the UK alone, biofuel subsidies cost 550 million annually. In 2005, a similar investment in preventing deforestation and peatland destruction could have offset the equivalent of up to 37 per cent of all UK emissions."

The shadow environment secretary, Peter Ainsworth, said: "It is becoming increasingly clear that unless we find a practical solution to the problems caused by deforestation the battle against climate change is in danger of being lost."

A government-commissioned investigation into the fuels by Professor Ed Gallagher last month concluded that "uncontrolled expansion" in the industry could actually increase the climate change threat if rainforests were felled to make way for biofuel crops.

The Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, said the government would consult on slowing the rate at which the RTFO was introduced, to delay reaching the 5 per cent target from 2010-11 to 2013-14.