The average effective carbon rate for marked gas oil, green diesel, was €40/t of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted in 2020, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said.
The Fossil Fuel Subsidies 2020 report published today (Wednesday, April 27), analyses the average effective carbon rate per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted for the main fossil fuels.
In 2020, €2.8 billion was raised in energy taxes, €400 million was spent on environmental subsidies related to energy and emissions, and fossil fuel subsidies were €2.2 billion.
The report combines direct fossil fuel subsidies such as the household fuel allowance with indirect subsidies such as revenue foregone through lower excise duty rates, to estimate the total cost of fossil fuel subsidies.
The average effective carbon rate of a fuel is defined as net energy tax receipts divided by total tonnes of CO2 emitted through combustion of the fuel.
Commenting on the release Clare O’Hara, statistician in the CSO environment and climate division, said:
“Total fossil fuel subsidies in 2020 were €2.2 billion. In 2019 total fossil fuel subsidies were €2.8 billion.
“The decrease from 2019 to 2020 was mainly due to the reduction in consumption of fossil fuels for transport, in particular aviation, due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.
“Jet kerosene used for commercial aviation is exempt from excise and carbon taxes. Using the excise duty for heavy oil used for air navigation as a benchmark, the CSO estimates that the amount of revenue foregone in 2020 on jet kerosene due to the tax exemption was €234 million.
“This compares with €634 million in 2019, before the pandemic.
“Using the petrol excise duty rate as a benchmark, we estimated the amount of revenue foregone on autodiesel in 2020 due to a lower excise duty rate as €338 million, compared with €400 million in 2019.
“We found that the highest average effective carbon rate per tonne of CO2 in 2020 was €267 for petrol.
“The average effective carbon rate for autodiesel was 29% lower at €190/t of CO2 due to the lower excise duty rate applied to this fuel.
“The average effective carbon rate for marked gas oil, sometimes referred to as green diesel, used in agriculture, forestry and fishing was €40/t of carbon dioxide,” O’Hara said.