The National Biomethane Strategy “will be ready for consideration” by government by early quarter two of this year according to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Minister Charlie McConalogue detailed in a parliamentary response to Independent Galway West TD, Noel Grealish, that there has been “considerable response” to the public consultation, which closed earlier this week, on a draft National Biomethane Strategy.
The minister said: “In Ireland, the development of a biomethane industry is at a nascent stage of development but there is significant potential.
“Biomethane has the potential to displace fossil gas in many hard-to-decarbonise sectors and will play a significant role in enabling our transition to a net-zero economy, while also playing a significant role in the decarbonisation of Ireland’s agriculture sector.”
According to Minister McConalogue the public consultation on the draft National Biomethane Strategy “builds on extensive analysis and engagement already undertaken” which also included discussions with 36 “stakeholder” groups to hear “expert views on the development of a biomethane industry in Ireland”.
Biomethane strategy criticised
But An Taisce has severely criticised the draft National Biomethane Strategy and said it “lacks scientific and economic credibility”.
The environmental charity said the strategy set out a framework for “significantly scaling up the production of biomethane via anaerobic digestion (AD) plants using grass silage and slurry as feedstocks.”
But it believes that the strategy fails to “fully analyse the potential negative climate and environmental impacts”.
In its submission during the public consultation phase An Taisce stated that there was “a serious imbalance in the mix of stakeholders who contributed to the formation of the draft strategy”.
“Industry experts, developers, gas users, and State bodies were included, but environmental non government organisations (NGO) representatives and environmental experts outside of government departments and sectoral agencies as well as those liable to be critical of the strategy – were excluded,” it stated.
An Taisce said from its perspective the draft strategy “is undermined by major due diligence failures by government and agencies”.
“Biased stakeholder consultations favoured the powerful interests most likely to financially benefit from misdirected policy supports, questionable green gas credits, and substantial public monies,” the environmental charity added.