Robert Troy
Question:845. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if the State has met its targets under the EU renewable targets for transport. [24220/16]
View answerThursday, 21 July 2016
Questions (845)
Written answers
Ireland's 2020 renewable energy target is to increase the share of final energy consumption made up of renewable energy sources (RES) to 16%. This target was agreed under the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC and is broken into three key sectors with individual targets for each sector: 40% of electricity supply (RES-E), 12% of heating (RES-H), and 10% of transport (RES-T).
By 2014, Ireland had a achieved a level of 5.2% for RES-T which is over halfway to the 2020 target. A distance of 4.8% remains to be reached in the period 2015-2020. Sustainable liquid biofuels has been and is expected to continue to be the largest contributor to RES-T in the period to 2020, through the biofuel obligation scheme where fuel suppliers are required to include a level of biofuel in their annual sales of transport fuels. There will also be a contribution to target from electrification. Although EVs have not contributed at the level originally expected by this point, I understand that with the implementation of further measures to increase the penetration of biofuels and EVs, the distance that remains to the target can be bridged by the end of 2020.