The drive to switch over to biofuels could lead to rising food prices and deforestation, a report has warned.
The government and EU have said by the year 2020 they want 10% of all fuel in cars to come from biofuels.
But a study by the Co-op Insurance Society suggests achieving this could have a severe environmental impact.
Professor Dieter Helm, a senior advisor to the British government, told the BBC: "The sort of targets being set for biofuels will have quite radical effects on agriculture and therefore will have very substantial consequences for food prices and agriculture more generally."
The report says that around nine per cent of the world's agricultural land may be needed to replace just 10% of the world's transport fuels.
This means the production of biofuels could lead to a decrease in land available for food production in countries where famine already exists.
"People are felling rainforests to plant crops to grow energy fuels, biofuels," Professor Helm said.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk