Promotion of biofuel consumption in the transport sector: An EU-27 perspective

The European Union's (EU) Directive 2003/30/EC [1] set an objective of reaching a 5.75% share of renewable energy as a proportion of the total energy consumption of the transport sector by 2010. As all the Member States (MSs) of the EU-27 were obliged to comply with this directive different public policy measures were developed and implemented to promote the use of biofuels in transport—biofuels being the main renewable energy source (RES) in this sector. In this article, we review the public measures undertaken in the EU-27, and show how these measures primarily involve tax incentives and biofuel blending mandates on fuel sales. All countries, with the exception of Finland, introduced tax incentives of various types to promote the use of biofuels, while 18 MSs also implemented biofuel blending mandates through the passing of legislation relating to this matter.