Ministry of Defence: Use of Biofuels

Lord Rosser Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord Rosser (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Soley for enabling us to debate this issue. He referred to climate change, security of fuel supplies and falling behind in research and development considerations as reasons for moving to biofuels. As my noble friend said, this is far from being the first time he has raised this question. He pursued it in an Oral Question just over three months ago when the Minister replied that,

“the Ministry of Defence uses biofuels for road transport where EU legislation obliges manufacturers to include a percentage of biofuels in the fuel they produce. The use of biofuels for marine and aviation use is governed by the requirements and approvals of the department’s equipment manufacturers. The Ministry of Defence is encouraging these manufacturers to work towards adopting biofuels in the future”.

I hope the Minister will be able to say some more today on exactly what form that encouragement from the Government is taking.

The answers given during discussion of the Oral Question at the end of March could be interpreted as meaning that the encouragement was pretty peripheral. The Minister said,

“the MoD uses biofuels for road transport where EU regulations oblige fuel manufacturers to include them, and only for that”.—[Official Report, 31/3/14; col. 742.]”

He also said that that use was limited and that the Ministry of Defence was a very small user of biofuels. Those are hardly answers that suggested that the ministry’s equipment manufacturers would be being encouraged very much in this direction.

Of course, biofuels are not the only means of reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by the Ministry of Defence. The Minister has previously referred to more energy-efficient use of fuel, alternative technology or equipment, reducing activity levels, using alternative fuels and interoperability with our allies as other approaches to be adopted.

As my noble friend Lord Soley said, the United States Navy is looking to have by 2020 ships and aircraft using some 50% biofuels from algae rather than from farm produce, with its implications for food production; and the United States Air Force is flying some high-performance jets on 50% biofuels. Other countries, including Italy and the Netherlands, are going down this road.

The Minister has previously said that the performance of biofuels by the United States and other countries in their naval vessels and aircraft is,

“being shared through equipment manufacturers and international forums such as the Air and Space Interoperability Council”.

At the same, the Minister indicated that the,

“defence equipment and support fuel team regularly engages with manufacturers to understand the most recent research and how this might apply to the MoD’s fuel requirements in the future”.—[Official Report, 31/3/14; col. 742.]

I do not know, but the last point might include a reference to biofuel that does not use food and food products, but is generated from bacteria, using waste materials and is sometimes referred to as advanced biofuels. These do not take land out of agricultural use or impact on rainforests.

There is a target under the renewal energy directive, which requires EU countries to derive 10% of their transport energy from renewable sources by 2020. Can the Minister confirm whether the use of other forms of transport apart from road transport for military purposes is covered by the directive? I assume from his previous responses that the answer is no, but I should be grateful for confirmation of the position.

We appear to have a scenario of a Ministry of Defence watching the results of the experience of other countries in using biofuels in military ships and aircraft, and a defence equipment and support fuel team that is seeking to understand the most recent research and how it might apply to the Ministry of Defence fuel requirements in future. On top of that, we are told that the Ministry of Defence uses biofuels for road transport only in so far as there is a requirement arising from EU legislation and that for marine and aviation use the Ministry of Defence encourages manufacturers to work towards adopting biofuels in future. That does not present a picture of a Ministry of Defence that is exactly pushing the issue. Is that on grounds of cost or the impact on the efficiency of military operations? What is the attitude of the ministry’s equipment manufacturers towards using biofuels in future? What is their response to the encouragement from the Ministry of Defence, which the Minister told us just over three months ago they were receiving, and what form does that encouragement take? I hope that the Minister will be able to provide answers to these questions and other points raised in this short debate, not least by my noble friend Lord Soley.