Minister Eamon Ryan launched a public consultation paper on the Biofuels Obligation Scheme.

Download the public consultation paper on the Biofuels Obligation Scheme ( This links to a PDF document

PDF 163kb)

Press Release

The closing date for responses is the 24th November 2008

As set out in the Energy Policy Framework, the Bioenergy Action Plan and the Programme for Government, the Government intends to introduce a biofuels obligation to ensure that a certain percentage of the transport fuel used in the state by 2010 consists of biofuels. Such an obligation scheme will be a key component in achieving a 10% penetration of renewable energy in transport by 2020, to which the Government has committed under the proposed new EU Renewable energy and climate change packages, set out by the European Commission in January this year.
This type of regulatory mechanism is increasingly being adopted across the EU and generally supplants earlier and more direct means of supporting biofuels, such as excise tax relief schemes. The biofuel obligation scheme should allow for a gradual uptake of these new fuel supplies and will adopt the new sustainability criteria which will come with the new binding EU targets. While other forms of renewable energy will play an important role in transport by 2020, it is expected that biofuels will retain a substantial role, and that successively higher obligations rates will be required to deliver that overarching 10% target.

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