A letter in The Hounslow & Brentford Times from Tory Zac Goldsmith attacking the Lib Dems on the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) prompted me to hone and take a closer look at the issues. Just like Zac, environmental sustainability has been a long standing personal and professional interest. My conclusion is that yet again, the Tories have got it wrong on a key environmental issue of our age.

There are of course serious fears over the impact on food production, and the effect of clearing rainforests to set up palm oil plantations.

Liberal Democrats have agreed with campaigners that proper certification is the answer. It is a major concern that the government has so far failed to put in place mandatory standards on both issues.

Having said that, the situation will not be quite as unregulated as some campaigners have suggested. A reporting system of sorts is in place and detailed information on CO2 savings and sustainability are asked for. The administrator of the new Renewable Fuels Agency will publish this information at least every three months. There will also be an annual report on the actions of individual companies. While far from perfect, this should provide an opportunity for individuals and campaigning organisations to scrutinise the actions of all those involved.

A second concern is that any calculation of the net CO2 saving relative to the use of fossil fuel must take account of the fertilisers that were used, any impacts from changes in land use and the energy used in refining and transporting the final product. Clearly, there would be no point in pursuing this policy if those savings were not real and demonstrable.

Given these two significant concerns Liberal Democrat colleagues did not feel able to support the government’s proposals as they stood when the matter was voted on.

This is why, unlike the Conservatives, we do not oppose the measure outright. We believe the RTFO is still the right thing to do in principle if these issues can be addressed. The aim is to get to the second generation of biofuels, at which point the risks on sustainability are much reduced. This is because second generation biofuels, rather than just taking the starch from a crop (i.e. the grain from wheat), extract energy from the whole crop. This has the potential to more than double energy yields and has a smaller carbon footprint because the amount of energy-intensive fertilisers and fungicides used to grow the crops will remain the same for a higher amount of useable material.

In order to speed up the move towards the second generation of biofuels we need industry to be confident that there will be a market for these fuels, otherwise there will never be the necessary investment. We must be ready to embrace this major opportunity for British farmers and manufacturers by supporting steps to ensure the UK is at the forefront of developing this technology.