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Vegetable Oils: Carbon Emissions

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered on 18th January 2023.

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Photo of Jessica Morden Jessica Morden Chair, Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee), Chair, Statutory Instruments (Select Committee), Chair, Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee), Chair, Statutory Instruments (Select Committee), Shadow Vice Chamberlain of HM Household (Whip), Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on UK carbon emissions of switching from diesel to hydrogenated vegetable oil as a transition fuel for industrial machinery.

Photo of Jessica Morden Jessica Morden Chair, Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee), Chair, Statutory Instruments (Select Committee), Chair, Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee), Chair, Statutory Instruments (Select Committee), Shadow Vice Chamberlain of HM Household (Whip), Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to incentivise switching from diesel to hydrogenated vegetable oil as a transition fuel for industrial machinery.

Photo of Trudy Harrison Trudy Harrison The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Defra has made no such assessment and is not taking steps to incentivise this switch.

The supply of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as a fuel in road transport and in non-road mobile machinery is supported under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) certificate trading scheme. In 2021 HVO biodiesel supplied under the RTFO provided an average 89% greenhouse gas emissions saving compared to diesel. No data is gathered on the split between road vehicle and other end uses covered by the RTFO. It is also worth noting that the carbon reduction benefits of biofuels will vary depending on how they are produced. In 2021 the vast majority of HVO supplied was produced from used cooking oil. The average carbon reductions of some crop-based biofuels are significantly lower.

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  • (Citation: HC Deb, 18 January 2023, cW)