Official figures show that biofuel imports from “high-risk” sources dominate the Irish market, threatening climate goals and damaging producers here, a leading industry group warns.
The Irish Bioenergy Association said on Thursday that while figures from the National Oil Reserves Agency show that biofuel consumption here rose 24 per cent last year, most of the growth came from high-risk jurisdictions, including Indonesia, China, Malaysia and Ukraine.
The industry here argues that biofuels from those countries cannot be verified and fears that they are products that do not qualify as sustainable mis-labelled as hydrogenated vegetable oil.
James Cogan, chairman of the association’s transport group said that one third of all biofuels sold here in 2024 came from “supply chains widely believed to be fraudulent”.
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He pointed out the products could include virgin palm oil and soy oil disguised as waste oil to falsely qualify for sustainability incentives.
“These imports are cheaper but deeply damaging,” he added.
Hydrogenated vegetable oil accounted for 31 per cent of the market here, but 75 per cent of it came from outside the European Union, mostly high-fraud prone countries, said Mr Cogan.
“Meanwhile, Irish biomethane’s share fell from 70 per cent in 2023 to just 21 per cent in 2024, overtaken by high fraud risk Malaysian “used cooking oil” and German food waste, both being used to produce biogas,“ he added.
“This, in the same period as the Government launched its National Biomethane Strategy seeking a 40-fold growth in Irish biomethane production by 2030.”
