The British government has decided to use biofuels to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions, and is drawing up a requirement for a 5% blend of ethanol and biodiesel in petrol and diesel. This is expected to save them 1 megatonne of CO2-equivalent per year, or about 0.5% of their total emissions. While initially much of the ethanol will be imported from Brazil (where many cars run on pure ethanol, and domestically produced ethanol makes up 40% of all transport fuel), the government's announcement should provide the certainty needed to encourage domestic production. Which will in turn allow higher blends and push car manufacturers into producing more vehicles that can run on them. It's a good example of the way simple government policy can be used to create a market, and push society in a more sustainable, less carbon-intensive direction.
The New Zealand government has made a similar move, but has been less ambitious on the ethanol front, both to avoid the need for imports, and because our older car fleet is less able to cope with blended fuel. But hopefully it will have the same effect of creating a market, and they will soon move to higher blends.
I believe that they will also raise the excise duty on vege oils if used as a fuel, making the product similar in price to existing diesel. No doubt this will stop Josephine Public from stealing the show from the oil companies with their new green gloss.
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