To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans the Government have to promote (a) the wider use of and (b) research into biodiesel. (75455)

I have been asked to reply.

The Government announced in November 2005 that a Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) will be introduced from 2008 which will require all suppliers of transport fuels in the UK to ensure that a certain percentage of their total annual sales is made up of biofuels. The level of the obligation will rise from 2.5 per cent. in the financial year 2008-09 to 3.75 per cent. in 2009-10 and 5 per cent. in 2010-11. This should ensure that, by 2010, biodiesel sales in the UK will amount to over a billion litres a year—a 20-fold increase from where we are today.

This Department has funded research in recent years into different aspects of biofuel production and use, but none has considered individual biofuels in any detail. Our research has focused instead on the potential environmental and other impacts of significant use of biofuels in the longer term, and on the emissions consequences and economics of various bioethanol and biodiesel blends. Research into biofuels will continue as part of the work the Department has commissioned to develop a carbon and environmental assurance scheme to underpin the RTFO.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his policy is towards the encouragement of biofuels as an alternative energy source. (75892)

I have been asked to reply.

The Government are committed to encouraging the most sustainable forms of biofuels for emissions savings as well as for security of supply reasons. That is why we announced in November 2005 that we will introduce a Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation in April 2008 which will require all suppliers of transport fuels in the UK to ensure that a certain percentage of their total annual sales is made up of biofuels (or, in the longer term, some other renewable transport fuel).

The level of the obligation will rise from 2.5 per cent. in the financial year 2008-09 to 3.75 per cent. in 2009-10 and 5 per cent. in 2010-11. These levels will deliver a significant increase on current sales and will mean that by 2010 the vast majority of UK forecourts will be supplying renewable fuels in the form of biodiesel and bioethanol. The RTFO will deliver real environmental benefits and is projected to save around 1 million tonnes of carbon by 2010.