Biofuel not the answer, says Banks

ONE of Scotland's leading authors has called for the scrapping of new European targets for replacing petrol and diesel with biofuels derived from plants.

Iain Banks, who wrote the novels The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, was asked in an interview which piece of environmental legislation he would most like to overturn at present. He said: "Right now, one that rejects biofuels for motor vehicles."

Speaking to Friends of the Earth Scotland's magazine, published this week, Banks added: "However you cut it, the most profound effect of climate change is going to be poor people starving by the hundreds of millions, and biofuels as they exist at the moment are already helping to accelerate us down that road."

Biofuels are regarded as a more environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels burned around the world in motor engines.

But serious concerns have emerged that growers, especially in Third World countries, are being encouraged to produce them on land previously used for food crops.