Minister Eamon Ryan announces the publication of the Renewable Fuels for Transport Policy Statement

Today, the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan TD, announced the publication of the Renewable Fuels for Transport Policy Statement. This Statement is an important step in the delivery of the targets for decarbonising land transport and for greater use of renewable fuels in our transport system.

To meet the required level of emissions reduction, the recently published Climate Action Plan 2021 commits to incrementally raising the proportion of biofuels blended into petrol and diesel between now and 2030, meeting 3.7% of the overall carbon reduction challenge.

In line with this Policy, and as confirmed by the Government Decision today, the next increase in the rate of supply of biofuels blended in diesel and petrol will take effect from 1 January 2022. There will be a statutory consultation for regulations to be made giving effect to this change.

A further range of measures to incentivise use of renewable transport fuels which are signalled in the Policy Statement will be the subject of a public consultation in 2022.

To mediate against the impacts of the recent global increases in energy and fuel prices, interim measures will be put in place to help with any fuel price impact caused by these changes. This will involve a combination of a 1 cent per litre reduction in the National Oil Reserves Agency’s levy and a 1 cent per litre reduction in excise. These measures will be reviewed next autumn which will take account of fuel prices at that time.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said “The Renewable Fuels for Transport Policy Statement establishes an ambitious pathway for transport fuels to achieve our target of a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030. Further commitments include incentives to develop the supply of renewable fuels including advanced biofuels and alternative transport fuels such as green hydrogen and biomethane, while ensuring the maintenance of the highest standards of sustainability of biofuel supply from source.”

In addition, this policy complements supports for the heavy duty vehicle sectors which will continue in 2022 under the Alternatively Fuelled Heavy Duty Vehicles Grant and the Accelerated Capital Allowance scheme now applying to hydrogen propelled vehicles.

Notes to the Editor

Transport accounts for approximately 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland and the Climate Action Plan sets out a number of actions to significantly reduce emissions by 2030. These include

• electric vehicles roll out of nearly 1 million

• an additional 500,000 sustainable daily public transport and active travel journeys

• 10% reduction in Internal combustion Engine (ICE) car journeys

• Increasing the blend of biofuels to B20 in diesel and E10 in petrol

To date, biofuel has been the primary mechanism used to increase the share of renewable energy in the transport sector and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The success of the Biofuels Obligation Scheme to date can be seen in 2020 when 239 million litres of biofuels replaced c.209 million litres of fossil fuels and avoided approximately 520kt CO2eq transport emissions.

The published Climate Action Plan 2021 commits to raising the blend proportion of biofuels to at least B20 (biodiesel) in diesel and E10 (ethanol) in petrol by 2030. This target will see an emissions abatement saving of 1.1MtC02eq by 2030.

The EU Fuel Quality Directive requires Ireland to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of transport fuels by a minimum of 6%. Failure to meet this requirement will open Ireland up to the risk of enforcement by the European Commission.

More informaiton is available here.