The Gallagher review into biofuels has warned that renewable transport fuels could contribute to greenhouse gases emissions and rising food prices. The study was commissioned by the UK government in April amid concern that biofuels could be competing with food production, damaging the environment and creating more carbon emissions than they save.
The research, which was led by the Renewable Fuels Agency, included an examination of the indirect or knock-on effects of producing the fuels, which are made from organic materials such as maize, sugarcane and palm oil.
These could include what happens when crops such as oil seed rape are converted to biofuels, causing food manufacturers to turn to unsustainable palm oil as a substitute.
The renewable fuels come from organic materials ranging from sugar beet and cane to maize or palm oil and because they have taken in carbon dioxide during growth they are low carbon compared with the fossil fuels they replace. But their production can lead to forest clearance which destroys natural habitat and damages wildlife.
The destruction of forests also releases carbon - counteracting their supposed benefit - while the use of fertilisers and transportation can also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, concerns have been raised that energy crops are competing for land with food production - with agricultural land shifting to biofuels - and that demand is helping drive up global food prices.
Recent research published in Science found that in some cases converting land to biofuel production caused many times more emissions than the savings the fuels delivered - for example from the large tracts of rainforest being cleared for palm oil plantations in Indonesia.
And in January a report from the Royal Society warned there was a risk that biofuels could fail to deliver hoped-for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and could damage the environment.
The Environmental Audit Committee, the government's top environment adviser Professor Robert Watson and green groups and aid agencies have called for a moratorium on biofuels.
But the Gallagher review said government policy should be amended rather than abandoned.
The UK policy centres on the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), which came into force in April. The RTFO requires 2.5 per cent of fuels for vehicles to come from renewable sources, rising to 5 per cent by 2010.
Bioethanol and biodiesel from plant sources are being blended into conventional petrol and diesel respectively to cut their carbon footprint. The EU has also outlined a target of sourcing 10 per cent of transport fuels from biofuels by 2020.
The Gallagher review called for lower targets and incentives to encourage so-called second generation biofuels, which can be made from the starch of agricultural waste products such as straw and are much more energy efficient.
Experts have indicated second generation biofuels are less than five years away. It has been calculated that reductions in greenhouse gases of anywhere between 10 per cent and 80 per cent compared with fossil fuels can be delivered by converting wheat to ethanol in the UK, depending on the processes used.
The Royal Society has urged the government to ensure biofuels are produced in a way that is sustainable and delivers CO2 cuts.
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