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The government has indicated it could scale back biofuel adoption targets, in response to continued concern that soaring demand for plant-derived fuels is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and food prices worldwide.
Transport minister Lord Adonis today formally accepted the recommendations of the Gallagher Review and proposed that the government's biofuel targets should be delayed so that biofuels make up five per cent of transport fuel used in the UK by 2013-14, rather than 2010-11.
Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), the UK has to meet legally binding targets designed to increase the amount of biofuel used by the transport sector.
However, earlier this year the UK government-backed Gallagher Review concluded that there is a risk that the uncontrolled increase in the use of biofuels could drive unsustainable land use change.
It said that soaring demand for energy crops such as corn, sugar cane, palm oil and soya, ...