The UK has signed up to two significant EU Directives. The Renewable Energy Directive sets a 10 per cent binding minimum target for biofuels in transport to be achieved by each member state by 2020.  The Fuel Quality Directive requires oil companies to reduce their carbon emissions by 6 per cent by 2020. This will be achieved mainly through the use of biofuels. The biofuel supplied to meet these directives must achieve measurable greenhouse gas savings and must be made from material which meets appropriate sustainability criteria.

The UK operates a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) which requires that 4 per cent of all fuel sold onUKforecourts must come from renewable sources, rising to 5 per cent by 2013/14. Obligated fuel suppliers who fail to meet their obligation under the RTFO are required to pay a buy-out price currently set at 30p per litre.

To encourage fuel suppliers to source the most environmentally friendly biofuels, companies are required to report on the sustainability and greenhouse gas benefits of the biofuels they sell. The government has signalled that from December 2011 it will only reward biofuels under the RTFO if they are made from feedstocks which meet appropriate sustainability standards.

Our biodiesel, which is made from sustainably resourced local oil seed crops direct from UK Farming Cooperatives rates very highly both on greenhouse gas saving and sustainability.

The case for biofuels being close to carbon neutral is based on the fact the crops from which they are made consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during growth, this is then released again when the biofuels is used in a vehicle. Measurement of emissions or greenhouse gas (ghg) savings associated with biofuel can differ dependent upon the method of calculation and also which feedstock is used. Work is ongoing to develop an international consensus on the most appropriate method of ghg calculation

New research from Canada supports the case that biodiesel produced from Rape Seed Oil is a sustainable biofuel feedstock. The recently released study, "Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) Rape Seed Oil Biodiesel," demonstrates that Rape Seed Oil biodiesel reduces life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 90% compared to fossil diesel.