Vegetable oil prices are spiralling due to the war in Ukraine, which is Europe’s largest supplier of rapeseed. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters
Europe and the UK are pouring 17,000 tons – or about 19 million bottles – of cooking oil into vehicle fuel tanks every day, even though it is up to two-and-a-half times more expensive than before 2021, according to new analysis.
The equivalent of another 14 million bottles a day of palm and soy oil – mostly from Indonesia and South America – is also burned for fuel, the research says.
Vegetable oil prices are spiralling in large part due to the war in Ukraine, which is Europe’s largest supplier of rapeseed and the world’s largest source of sunflower oil.
But 58% of the rapeseed – and 9% of the sunflower oil – consumed in Europe between 2015 and 2019 was burned in cars and trucks, even though their climate impacts may be even worse than fossil fuels.
“Supermarkets have had to ration vegetable oils and prices are soaring,” said Maik Marahrens from the campaign group Transport & Environment, which carried out the research. “At the same time, we are burning thousands of tons of sunflower and rapeseed oil in our cars daily. In a time of scarcity we must prioritise food over fuel.”
Vegetable oil prices are spiralling in large part due to the war in Ukraine, which is Europe’s largest supplier of rapeseed and the world’s largest source of sunflower oil.
But 58% of the rapeseed – and 9% of the sunflower oil – consumed in Europe between 2015 and 2019 was burned in cars and trucks, even though their climate impacts may be even worse than fossil fuels.
“Supermarkets have had to ration vegetable oils and prices are soaring,” said Maik Marahrens from the campaign group Transport & Environment, which carried out the research. “At the same time, we are burning thousands of tons of sunflower and rapeseed oil in our cars daily. In a time of scarcity we must prioritise food over fuel.”
Despite acute food insecurity running at record highs, about 10% of the world’s grains are still turned into biofuels, enough to feed 1.9 billion people for a year on some estimates.
If the land abroad used to grow the UK’s bioethanol were instead given over to food crops, an extra 3.5 million people a year could be fed, according to another study published by the Green Alliance on Monday. This would lower the impact of global undernourishment due to the war in Ukraine by 25-40%, the paper found.
And if the UK, US and EU halved their collective use of crop-based biofuels, Ukraine’s previous grain exports – which fed about 125 million people – could be wholly replaced, the paper concluded.
“At a time when Russia’s war threatens people in less developed countries with starvation, it’s indefensible to keep increasing biofuel use,” said Dustin Benton, the Green Alliance’s policy director. “Cutting back on biofuels is the fastest way of addressing global hunger in this crisis.” The Guardian - link - Arthur Neslen - link - more like this (biofuels) - link
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