New Irish Biofuels Target Would Exceed EU Requirement

The Irish government wants to require that biofuels comprise a 5.75 percent share of Ireland's transportation fuel market by 2009. If this requirement is met, Ireland will hit the EU Biofuels Directive target for 2010 a year early. The government also set a new target of 10 percent market share for biofuels by 2020.

According to Noel Dempsey, Ireland's Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources:

This move [...] will allow us to achieve carbon savings of over 700,000 tonnes per year by 2009. This is the equivalent of taking almost 200,000 cars off the road annually. Combined with the comprehensive renewable electricity and heat measures which I introduced in the last year, by 2009 renewable energy measures will save over 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year. This decision represents a long-term commitment by Government to the development of a biofuels market in Ireland.

Ireland has been particularly hard hit by an increase in emissions due to growth in both the number of cars and the length of the typical commute. According to the Irish Times, an upcoming report from Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency will show greenhouse gas emission levels in Ireland have risen steeply for the first time in four years — increasing by more than one million tons (a 2 percent rise) to about 70 million tons a year.