RTFO changes likely be complete by end January: MP

Changes to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) will be pushed through parliament and will likely be in effect by the end of January, opposition MP Nic Dakin told Energy Census on Friday.

The Labour Member of Parliament for Scunthorpe is the head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Bioethanol and has voiced support at Westminster for the biofuels industry.

“I don’t really understand why the government has wobbled on this,” Dakin said, indicating that the opposition Labour party was in full support of the change and it is unlikely to face a challenge during the legislation's passage.

“The Minister yesterday made it clear that the legislation has been laid before parliament, it is a statutory instrument and should be passed before the end of January… we need to put certainty back into the market,” Dakin told Energy Census.

A statutory instrument (SI) streamlines a legislative change’s passage through parliament, enabling it to be brought into law without passing a new Act, which can have multiple stages in both the Houses of Commons and Lords.

As an SI, the legislation is seen by a Committee in the Commons and then passed to a Committee in the Lords before moving onto the statute book.

The RTFO is being updated to increase the total contribution of biofuels in the road fuel mix and to implement a more powerful certification system aimed at promoting biofuels from waste. At the same time the government wants the RTFO to hasten the reduction of crop-based biofuels in the energy mix.

As of April 1, the total percentage of biofuels within UK road fuels is mandated to rise from the current 4.75% to 12.4% by 2032.

Within that contribution, crop-based biofuels will see their specific contribution reduced from 4% up to 2020 down to 2% of the total 12.4% requirement by 2032, as the government looks to end the 'food versus fuel' debate.

Against that, waste-based biofuels will be incentivised and see their contribution increase from 3.25% from April 1 2018 to 7.6% over the same timeframe. In addition, a new advanced biofuel target will also be introduced, which will rise from 0.1% to 2.8%.

While the Department for Transport had no further comment when contacted by Census, it has previously indicated that the government is confident of completing the process in the allotted timeline.