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Publication; Eastern Daily Press
July 13th 2005
Head line - Bio fuels; Small is best
Councillors Andrew Boswell & Chris Hull; Green Group Norfolk County Council
The efficiency of the biofuels production cycle is still a matter of research, but research quoted by the Government in their 2004 biofuels public consultation gave actual emissions reductions as being between 40 and 56pc (say 50pc) for a pure fuel. This is because carbon emissions are produced as part of the complete “seed to CO2” production cycle.
Any pure biofuel so produced is then blended in a typically 5pc mix with conventional fuel. The emission saving then reduces by a factor of 20 from approximately 50pc to 2.5pc. This is where any “carbon neutrality” argument about biofuels breaks down. Shell, for example , who are researching biofuels say that even with all UK set aside land use , we could not afford to grow enough biofuel to replace more than 5pc of conventional fuels- so even the most intensive biofuels production which we can imagine, could deliver no more than a 2.5pc emissions saving across the whole motor- transport economy. A simple way to achieve the same effect would be for the average 10,000 mile a year motorist to cut their mileage 250 miles a year.
Experts agree that we need to reduce carbon emissions between 60pc and 80pc by 2050 to stabilise climate change.
These sorts of reduction will only be achieved by localising the economies, promoting energy efficiency, making vast investment in renewables including new “blue energy” like tidal power, reducing motorised vehicle journeys and air travel.
Small scale biofuels are to be encouraged; we should be investing now in relatively cheap, proven and efficient local energy technologies such as simple equipment to make biodiesel and biogas methane from slurries and surplus crops. Such small initiatives fit the Government’s Energy White paper aim to shift to localised energy production.
However we should be wary of large corporations, which if implemented locally would create a monoculture of our Norfolk landscape, and make little global warming impact.
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