Flawed State figures show the Republic could have imported millions of litres of environmentally damaging palm oil falsely labelled as renewables last year, a leading business in the industry has warned.
Biofuel use surged here in 2023 amid an EU move to toughen verification standards. That was prompted by fears that manufacturers in the Far East were mislabelling palm oil as green fuel in breach of European laws.
Irish renewable energy manufacturer Clonbio says a mistake in a recent report from the State’s National Oil Reserves Agency (Nora) shows the State could have imported millions of litres of falsely labelled biofuel last year.
An agency report on biofuel use in transport published in June showed the Republic imported almost 7.6 million litres of fuel made from palm oil mill waste from China. It also claimed that 23,000 litres of fuel from palm oil mill waste was Irish-produced.
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However, James Cogan, Clonbio’s industry and policy adviser, informed Nora that neither Ireland nor China produces palm oil, and so could not have made fuel from palm oil mill waste.
The agency subsequently amended the report’s figures, increasing the contribution of palm oil mill waste fuel from Indonesia to 49 million litres from 43.7 million, and from Malaysia to 5.3 million from 4.1 million.
The new figures revised the Irish and Chinese contributions to zero. They also cut the calculation of the total palm oil mill waste used here to 55.7 million from 56.8 million.
Mr Cogan noted that this left 1.1 million litres unaccounted for.
The Department of Transport confirmed that Nora corrected a “data error” in the first publication of its report on compliance with the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation in June. “A revised annual report was published with the corrections set out on the front page,” added a spokesman.
However, Mr Cogan argues that the mistake shows there were no checks to ensure that biofuel labelling and certification were accurate in the first place.
“The system is weak, there is no control over fraud,” he said. Mr Cogan pointed out that despite the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, voicing concerns about biofuel fraud, the problem had worsened during his time in office.
He stressed he was not implying that the Republic had done anything criminal. “What this says is that no one is checking,” he pointed out.
Mr Cogan noted that palm oil mill waste, or effluent, was a questionable source for biofuel as it was expensive and difficult to manufacture. Waste from milling palm oil ends up mixed with water in special ponds, so manufacturers must separate the effluent from the water to produce the fuel.
Mr Cogan said that it was more likely that producers would process virgin palm oil and label that as mill effluent biofuel.
He added that the Republic went “straight to the trashiest source of biofuel” when it increased consumption last year.
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The EU bars the use of actual palm oil as biofuel because increasing production would risk further rainforest and habitat destruction.
However, unexplained increases in the production of biofuel from other sources, including mill effluent and waste cooking oil, have sparked fears that manufacturers are using palm oil to meet demand for green transport fuels and mislabelling it as coming from legitimate sources.
The Department of Transport spokesman said the Nora had assured it of the “sustainability of the current supply of biofuel” to the Republic. He pointed out that the EU was tackling the risk of fraud with tougher verification requirements and giving new powers to member states’ authorities responsible for overseeing biofuel certification.
The department established a working group on biofuel sustainability last year, he added. Mr Cogan questioned what work this group had done.
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