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05 POLICY LANDSCAPE
in order to decarbonise their heating sectors. For example, Malawi
introduced a goal to manufacture 2,000 solar water heaters (no
date given) and to increase the penetration of solar water heaters
from the 2,000 in place as of 2015 to 20,000 by 2030. 57 Bosnia’s
INDC submission included the introduction of renewable energy
into existing district heating systems and the construction of new
district heating systems fuelled by renewable technologies. 58
Jordan’s INDC included the goal to provide short-term support
for the deployment of solar water heaters. 59
In general, policy makers have adopted one of two types of
mandates: solar obligations, which have been enacted in 11
countries at the national or state/provincial level, and technologyneutral
renewable heat obligations, which were in place in 10
countries by year-end 2015. Mandates have advanced slowly at
the national level, particularly in comparison to the municipal level
(see City and Local Governments section), and no new mandates
were adopted at the national level in 2015.
Financial incentives and public financing also have been extended
to support the deployment of renewable heat technologies,
although there were few new developments in 2015. Australia
announced a new grant scheme covering 50% of project costs
for renewable heat for industrial processes as one of the focus
areas for investment under the Australia Renewable Energy
Agency. 60 The Czech Republic expanded its residential subsidy
scheme to support district heating and heat recovery and relaxed
requirements for solar thermal systems to qualify for incentives. 61
France doubled the budget for its renewable heat support
scheme Fonds Chaleur – first established in 2009 – to provide
USD 455 million (EUR 420 million) to support renewable heat
in the industrial, residential and district heating sectors. 62 Italy
announced its intention to double the size of qualifying projects
under its renewable heating and cooling incentive scheme from
1 MW to 2 MW. 63 Slovakia launched its long-awaited support
scheme to scale up renewable technologies in residential
buildings, including rebates of up to 50% of project costs for
renewable heat systems. 64
At the sub-national level, the Renewable Heat NY programme
(introduced in 2014) began offering incentives in the US state of
New York for the use of high-efficiency wood heating systems for
residential and commercial buildings that lack access to natural
gas. 65 Despite low international oil and gas prices, few incentives
for solar process heat were reduced in 2015; however, Thailand
halted its process heat subsidy for 2015–16. 66
TRANSPORT
In the transport sector, renewable fuels and electric vehicles
(EVs) continue to attract attention from policy makers in the form
of regulatory measures and fiscal incentives. The vast majority
of policies adopted in the renewable transport sector have been
directed at the production and use of biodiesel and ethanol.
This support has shifted increasingly towards the promotion
of second-generation, advanced biofuels in new policy
development, although, globally, the majority of policies adopted
to date focus predominantly on first-generation biofuels. (p See
Figure 41 and Reference Table R24.)
Efforts to promote biofuel technologies have employed similar
provisions as in the power and heating/cooling sectors – including
targets, regulatory measures and tax/financial incentives – to
spur growth within the transport sector. New and existing policies
have focused almost exclusively on road transport rather than on
aviation, rail or shipping. EVs also have received increased support,
although to a much lesser degree. The number of jurisdictions
that have enacted policies to promote a direct linkage between
renewable energy and EVs remains very limited.
A small number of new renewable transport targets were
introduced in 2015, with most of these targets in INDC submissions.
France set a new target of 15% renewables in final transport energy
consumption by 2030; Liberia put forward a target for blending
up to 5% palm oil biodiesel by 2030 for vehicle fuels; Lao PDR
seeks to increase the use of biofuels to meet 10% of its transport
fuel demand by 2025; and Malawi set a goal of increasing the
proportion of vehicles running on ethanol to 20% by 2020. 67 In the
aviation sector, Japan aims to utilise some biofuels for air transport
by the time the country hosts the Olympics in 2020. 68
Globally, the transport sector continued to be embroiled in debate
over the economic and environmental impacts of biofuels, with
particularly vocal debates continuing in Europe and the United
States in 2015. Critics contend that the full life-cycle emissions
associated with the fuels negates the positive environmental
impact of displaced fossil fuel consumption, while others challenge
concerns about the impact on food crop prices and land use. 69
Many long-running policy debates were adjudicated in 2015, with
rulings made on obligations for the use of first-generation biofuels
in the EU and the United States. After seven years of speculation
and negotiation, the European Parliament approved revisions to
the EU renewable energy act to establish a limit on the use of
first-generation biofuels to meet the EU’s 10% renewable fuels
mandate. The new provisions limit crop-based biofuels to a 7%
share of the EU’s 2020 10% renewable transport energy target.
They also include indicative support for second-generation
biofuels through a 0.5% voluntary target and by allowing their
contribution to be double-counted towards meeting the overall
EU mandate. 70 At the national level in the EU, Germany reduced
its required blend volumes for biodiesel from 6.25% to 3.5%
to bring the requirement in line with the targeted emissions
reduction goals. 71
In the United States, a similar debate over first-generation
biofuel mandates in the form of the Renewable Fuel Standard
(RFS) – a national mandate for total volume of biofuel blending
– occurred throughout 2015. In December, the US Environmental
Protection Agency released updated biomass-based diesel
116