THE GOVERNMENT will today announce a dramatic drop in its biofuels targets amid concerns about their environmental impact.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan will outline a revised biofuels obligation scheme which will set a target of 3 per cent of transport fuel by 2010.
The new figure, which works out at 4 per cent by volume (biofuels are less efficient than fossil fuels) reduces by almost half the target of 5.75 per cent set out only last year by Mr Ryan's predecessor in transport, Noel Dempsey.
However, Mr Ryan will also say that the 2020 target for biofuels of 10 per cent for all fuels will still stand.
The adherence to this target is predicated on his belief that second-generation biofuels - specific fuel crops that do not affect food prices and are less environmentally damaging - will have been developed commercially by that time.
The Government will also be putting a much larger emphasis on the development for widespread use of electric vehicles, a sector which Mr Ryan believes has enormous potential.
He is also expected to say that the obligation will not apply to motorists and other end-users but to producers, thus placing no burden on taxpayers.
The new obligation scheme will require that the development of the biofuels sector in Ireland is compliant with strict sustainability criteria.
It will mean that it must reduce greenhouse emissions, not affect the supply of food crops and not lead to deforestation or the reduction of other carbon sinks.
The more modest interim target reflects growing concerns about first-generation biofuels and their adverse affects on the environment and on the availability of basic food crops. It also signals a more gradual and cautious approach regarding the 2020 target.
Having said that, there is Government concern at the almost total reliance of Ireland on fossil fuels.
The biofuels obligation will address some of the uncertainty if there is a shortage of oil or gas.
Following today's publication, there will be an eight-week consultation period before the new obligation is implemented - this probably will be in early 2009.
However, Government sources pointed out yesterday that, in the absence of alternatives, biofuels will have a central long-term role in the Irish transport fuel mix.
It will mean that the Government will have to set a series of increases in the obligation rate between now and 2020 if it is to achieve the 10 per cent target by 2020.
Biofuels: growing doubts
As recently as 12 months ago, biofuels were still being held out as a real alternative to fossil fuels like gas and oil. In his 2007 state of the union speech, US president George W Bush said that America had become "addicted to oil" and that biofuels should comprise 20 per cent of US fuel by 2017. The EU also set slightly less ambitious biofuels targets of 10 per cent of all transport fuels by 2020.
In that context, then energy minister Noel Dempsey set an interim target of 5.75 per cent by the end of 2010. In the interim, growing doubts have emerged about biofuels.
The doubling in prices for some basic food commodities earlier this year was blamed on crops being grown to fill fuel tanks and not people's stomachs. It also emerged that the denuding of rain forests was happening to make way for biofuels. A number of studies also suggested some biofuels actually increased greenhouse emissions, thus defeating some of the purpose of growing them.
