UK MPs says E10 needed immediately

July 17, 2019 |

In the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Bioethanol has launched its final report on the introduction of E10. Stemming from the launch of an Inquiry in March into the lack of progress made by the DfT to publish its Consultation into E10, which closed in September 2018.

The APPG made an open for submissions to be submitted to the Inquiry by stakeholders of the British Bioethanol industry, and throughout the length of the Inquiry gathered evidence from 12 stakeholders from the UK, France and Belgium, also holding two oral evidence sessions in Parliament in May.

The report outlines the APPG’s key findings, some of which include:

  • The UK economy will likely soon lose a vital and valuable £1 billion bioethanol industry. Without the swift introduction of E10 – by 2020 at the latest – the British Bioethanol Industry will continue to decline and likely disappear forever resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs.
  • While the UK purports to be a global leader in tackling the Climate Crisis – with the Prime Minister recently announcing a new target for the UK to be Carbon Neutral by 2050 – the reality is that the UK falls far behind many other countries.
  • Introducing E10 would assist in the UK achieving its GHG reduction targets – saving the equivalent emissions of taking 700,000 cars off the road – while also being delivered at a low carbon cost relative to other options.
  • If the British Bioethanol Industry is lost, the UK will likely become dependent on increasingly scarce and less sustainable biofuel from abroad including Used Cooking Oil (UCO) from China.
  • If the British Bioethanol Industry is lost, British farmers will need to purchase an increasing volume of animal feed from less sustainable sources, in particular soya based feed from regions in South America, further exacerbating the issue of deforestation. British farmers will also lose an important domestic market for surplus feed wheat.

The final report also outlines the APPG’s final recommendations to the Government:

  • That the Department for Transport should publish its Consultation on E10 without delay.
  • That the Secretary of State for Transport should host an emergency summit on the future of the British Bioethanol Industry before or during the summer recess, bringing together stakeholders to discuss the best course of action to mandate the introduction of E10.

Category: Policy

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