biofuels

We had Fossil Fool's Day last week with plenty of action around the country to highlight the dangers posed by coal, but the dreadful punning doesn't stop there. Continuing the theme, next Tuesday is April Biofool's Day which admittedly falls on the 15th rather than the 1st, but that's because the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) - which will overnight increase our consumption of biofuels - begins to make its presence felt.

On the day, the good folks at Biofuelwatch and the Campaign against Climate Change are organising a protest outside the home of a certain Mr Gordon Brown, Number 10 Downing Street. You can join the crowds outside Number 10 from 6pm and further details are on the websites of both organisations. If you can't get there, you can still do something - write to transport secretary Ruth Kelly with your concerns about this rush towards biofuels.

Meanwhile, concerns about biofuels are rising up the political ladder, as last week UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called for a review on global biofuel policies. Our government currently has the indirect impacts with biofuels under review but the results aren't due for some time, and certainly not before Biofool's Day next week.

In a few weeks' time on Tuesday 15 April, every fuel company in the UK will be obliged to include a certain amount of biofuel in their petrol and diesel supplies. This is because, to comply with EU policies, the government has decreed we will all be using biofuels whether we want to or not but as you're probably aware, a lot of people have severe concerns about this.

With all the excitement happening today at Terminal One, it's worth remembering that yesterday was another eventful one in Heathrow's calendar as a Virgin Atlantic plane steered away from its usual transatlantic route to fly between Heathrow and Amsterdam. No, the guidance systems weren't malfunctioning: it was a test flight to demonstrate that biofuels can be used in aircraft. But what's that dripping from the undercarriage? Could it be a tonne of greenwash?

Virgin announced its plans to test biofuels some time ago but has been reluctant to say exactly what kind of biofuel they would be using. To quell concerns about the impact on the cost of food, a press release assured us that it wouldn't "compete with food and fresh water resources". The rumour was that it would be made from algae, but in the end it turned out to be a mixture of coconut and babassu oil. These aren't food crops as such, but if the aviation industry leaps on them as an apparently easy way to reduce emissions, that's going to have a huge environmental impact.

The guys at Biofuelwatch have been cooking up a week of protests around (what else?) biofuels. Like us, they're concerned about the rising demand for biodiesel etc and the implications that has for the climate, as well as deforestation, food prices and a host of other related issues.

Yet more questions have been raised in political circles about biofuel targets. Following last week's statements from the European environment commissioner, Defra's chief scientist and the Royal Society, a parliamentary committee has released its own report which says that pursuing mandatory targets without any form of sustainability criteria attached is not a good idea.

We could be witnessing a seismic and very exciting shift in how UK and EU policies on biofuels are being perceived in official circles. Both the EU Environment Commissioner and Defra's own chief scientist today went on record to say that current plans to vastly increase the amount of fuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel might need to be reconsidered.