The UK will continue to expand the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel for transport, but at a slower rate amid fears they raise food prices and harm the environment, the transport secretary has said.

Ruth Kelly told the Commons that Britain needed to press ahead with biofuels because the technology could still prove beneficial. But she said the government would slow down their introduction.

She said: “I believe it is right to adopt a more cautious approach until the evidence is clearer about the wider environmental and social effects of biofuels. We also need to allow time for more sustainable biofuel technologies to emerge.”

This move follows the publication of a government-commissioned report by Professor Ed Gallagher, the head of the government’s Renewable Fuels Agency, which recommends ministers “amend not abandon” biofuel policies. However, for the Conservatives, shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said a “mere slowdown” of the targets would not address problems and said policy had to change “right now”.

The report calls for biofuels to be introduced more slowly than planned until controls are in place to prevent higher food prices and land being switched from forests or agriculture. It predicts that current policies could see grain prices in the EU rise by 15%, sugar by 7% and oil seed by 50%. The review estimates that an extra 10.7 million people in India could find themselves in poverty, while countries such as Kenya, Malawi and Bangladesh could see hundreds of thousands affected.

The report said that without stringent checks, current targets for biofuel production could cause a global rise in greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in poverty in the poorest countries by 2020.

Ms Kelly’s statement comes as the European Parliament is about to vote on whether to scrap the EU’s target of sourcing 10% of transport fuel from biofuels by 2020. World Bank president Robert Zoellick has also called for reform in rich countries, urging them to grow more food instead.

Via BBC and The Guardian