Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the annual average greenhouse gas emissions from (a) hydrogenated vegetable oil and (b) diesel.

Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), like other renewable fuels, is eligible for support under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO). The RTFO is a certificate trading scheme that requires large suppliers of transport fuel to ensure a percentage of the total fuel they supply is from renewable sources. The RTFO further incentivises HVO produced from waste feedstocks, such as tallow or used cooking oil, by awarding double the renewable transport fuel certificates (RTFCs) compared to crop derived fuels.

Like all low carbon fuels supported under the RTFO, the Department regularly reports on the carbon savings achieved from HVO. In 2021, HVO provided an average 89% carbon reduction compared to a fossil fuel comparator. Full statistical reports are published quarterly on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/renewable-fuel-statistics.