Biofuels: The Gallagher review
11-06-08
This was carried out by a team led by the chairman of the Renewable Fuels Agency, Professor Ed Gallagher, and recommended "more caution and discrimination" in the promotion of biofuels within UK and European transport fuel.
Professor Ed Gallagher said in his final report that: "Significant increases in the use of land for bioenergy, and biofuels specifically, should only be contemplated once effective controls are implemented at a global level."
He recommended that the government halve the current annual one percentage point increase in renewable energy targets within petrol and diesel sold on British forecourts, increasing only up to a 5% level.
And, he said the 5% target level should then be kept until around 2014, with higher targets beyond this year only if "biofuels are demonstrably sustainable, including avoiding indirect land-use change".
Prof Gallagher said: "More caution and discrimination are needed. With little sign of the developed countries losing their appetite for travel and millions of new motorists expected in rapidly developing countries such as India, China, Russia and elsewhere, better fuels are needed, along with other well documented measures. We cannot afford to abandon biofuels as part of a low carbon transport future."
"Equally, we cannot continue producing biofuels which are ultimately more environmentally and socially damaging than the fossil fuels they seek to replace," he added.
On targets
With continuing doubts surrounding the current measurement of greenhouse gas savings, the Gallagher report suggested that "there is a risk that any biofuel target could lead to a net increase in GHG emissions".
The report warned that the proposed EU target of 10% renewable energy in transport fuels (by volume) as well as the targets in the UK's Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation "did not adequately address indirect land-use change".
Prof Gallagher recommended: "The current RTFO target for 2008/09 should be retained but the RTFO Order amended to require a lower rate of increase of 0.5% pa rising to a maximum of 5% by volume by 2013." He also suggested that the Obligation should allow firms to pay a "buy-out" penalty if they cannot obtain sufficient renewable fuels to meet their RTFO targets each year.
Furthermore, he added that the European Commission should ban Member States from supplying more than 5.75% of biofuels by energy until biofuels are "demonstrably sustainable" - and, the EU should even allow Member States to opt for a 4% target.
At a European level, the 10% target for 2020 should be cut to around 5-8% by energy, Prof Gallagher said, including an obligation for 1-2% to come from advanced technologies. Higher targets, of up to 10% by energy, "might be possible if sufficient controls are enforced globally on land-use change and new evidence provides further confidence that the effects upon food prices are manageable".
Whatever the evidence, an accelerated rate of biofuel introduction should not be introduced before around 2016, Prof Gallagher concluded.
On greenhouse gas savings
| Gallagher Review: The main Findings |
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But, he said setting such targets now would worsen the situation with respect to land use.
He warned that at present, "lifecycle analyses of GHG-effects fail to take account of indirect
land-use change and avoided land use from co-products. As a consequence GHG-based targets may result in a greater land requirement, and land-use change, than a volume or energy-based target."
Prof Gallagher cited existing research including that from Princeton University's Tim Searchinger, who said that in US ethanol production from maize crops, it would take 167 years for the resulting biofuels to save the greenhouse gas emissions used in their production.
Reacting to this kind of research, Prof Gallagher recommended a specific oblitation on transport fuel suppliers to supply biofuels achieving a high level of emissions savings - "possibly greater than 75%".
There should also be measures to drive biofuel production to use wastes and residues as a feedstock, or crops from marginal land. Algae was also suggested as a possibility for avoiding indirect land change.
The European Commission should propose a technology-neutral approach within the EU Renewable Energy Directive to provide incentives for advanced technologies, he said, "focusing on feedstock type and type of land on which it has been produced".
Second generation
In a report labeled "complex" by the renewable energy sector in the UK, there was also a warning regarding the use of "second generation" fuels - non-food crops.
Prof Gallagher's report pointed out that they may even cause "cause greater net land-use change than first generation biofuels" - in that wastes and residues from food crops could be used to produce biofuels without changing the land use from the cultivation of food.
The report was, however, forthright in stating the benefits of using wastes and residues to produce biofuels.
On Land use
With the Gallagher Review being carefully considered by European leaders as they draw up the forthcoming Renewable Energy Directive, and assess changes needed to fuel standards under the Fuel Quality Directive, Prof Gallagher recommended that both Directives should recognise the need to avoid direct and indirect environmental impacts from biofuels.
He said support mechanisms for biofuels should exclude feedstock grown on land where carbon losses arising from its cultivation lead to a payback of longer than 10 years by the biofuel produced.
"This could be achieved by conducting site specific assessments of anticipated payback times. These should be performed before any idle land that is permanent pasture is converted for biofuel production," the report said.
Biofuels support mechanisms should specifically exclude feedstock grown on land designated as of high conservation value, the report went on, adding that targets and policies should ensure there are no long-term impacts on food prices.
Electric cars
Prof Gallagher recommended a more technology-neutral approach to UK and European transport fuels targets, to promote the use of alternative approaches like electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells, rather than just biofuels.
His review, commissioned by transport secretary Ruth Kelly in February 2008, has opened up questions into how the greenhouse gas savings from biofuel production are being calculated.
It suggested that the premise on which UK support for biofuel use is based - that they deliver considerable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuels - may be in doubt.
But, the RFA chairman also pointed to a possible sustainable future for the biofuels industry, concluding that there is enough land available in the world to produce high levels of biofuels if policies are developed to target marginal and under-used land.
Consultation
The government has said it will soon launch a full public consultation on policy changes prompted by the Gallagher Review, with Ruth Kelly stating that biofuels targets will be slowed and reduced.
The government's new Renewable Energy Strategy, released in draft form for consultation this summer, has already pledged "strict" sustainability criteria to make sure biofuels are not produced in environmentally-sensitive land areas, and are achieving certain greenhouse gas savings compared to using standard fuels.
Prof Gallagher said: "For its part, the Renewable Fuels Agency will continue to contribute to the developing debate about biofuels. In the short term, we will seek to rebuild the working consensus between Government, environmentalists and industry to lay out clear directions for the feedstocks, the production processes and the land usage that will enable alternative fuel production to proceed in a truly sustainable way."
