OREANDA-NEWS. The UK's Department for Transport will consult on legislative changes to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) by the end of 2016, with a response expected for early 2017, according to the department's head of biofuels strategy Aaron Berry.

As a part of the six-week consultation, the introduction of a waste hierarchy to avoid the use of feedstock materials that would otherwise have use in the wider economy might be proposed, he said.

The UK has a 4.75pc biofuels blending mandate in volume terms under current RTFO legislation to support the government's policy on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

According to Berry, the country is on track to meet its 2020 targets and intends to increase the blending mandate "in equal steps" from 2017 to reach a 9.75pc share, a target which it will then maintain until 2030.

The department will also move to include incentives for the use of renewable fuels in aviation as a part of the RTFO, according to Berry.

"We need to develop a mechanism to deliver GHG savings. We think that biofuels will deliver around 4pc of our 6pc target for GHG savings in the EU's Fuel Quality Directive (FQD)," Berry said at the Argus Biofuels and Feedstocks conference today.

Upstream emissions reductions - measures aimed at the reduction of upstream emissions for fossil fuel pathways, as expressed in the FQD - are likely to be the most cost-effective choice to help achieve the remaining 2pc, he said.