The UK has a target to incorporate renewable fuels, such as biofuels, into road transport. This was inherited from the EU before Brexit and set at a time before electric vehicles became cost effective.

In 2021, before the invasion of Ukraine, the government decided to increase the target to 9.6 per cent in 2022, rising to 14.6 per cent of fuel by 2032. Where biofuels are made from crops, they compete with food production.

This analysis shows that sharply reducing the use of crop-based biofuels (while retaining waste-based biofuels) could partly or completely offset the impact of the war on global hunger, reduce UK consumer costs, and if accompanied by policy to very modestly increase the uptake of electric vehicles, could keep the UK on track to net zero.