A senior European Commission official has attacked the Government's strategy for limiting carbon dioxide emissions, warning it risks being rejected in its current form.

Insisting that the Republic "could have gone further" with its emission proposals, Mr Peter Vis, deputy head of the Commission's climate change unit, said his superiors were ready to use "a big stick" to force more far-reaching reforms ahead of the EU's April 1st deadline.

"We don't want to use the big stick. But the stick has to be there," said Mr Vis.

The Commission believes big companies, with heavy energy bills, have been unfairly favoured by the Government, with smaller businesses and consumers left to pick up the bill for the lower emissions regime.

With carbon emissions in the Republic far above Kyoto Treaty targets, the Commission had expected the Government to take a firmer stance against major polluters, said Mr Vis, speaking at a conference in Dublin organised by Fine Gael.

Confronted by representatives from the concrete industry who claimed emission regulation would put EU suppliers at a significant competitive disadvantage, Mr Vis said that where Brussels led, others would follow.

Europe had been an industrial polluter for longer than any other region and it was appropriate that it be the first to face up to its responsibilities, he said.

His assertions were given short shrift by Irish Cement marketing manager Mr Colm Bannon, who said that unless the industry could compete effectively with rivals across the EU and elsewhere, its viability would be threatened.

Rather than forcing cement producers to abide by unrealistic emissions targets, the Government and the Commission should have sought a voluntary pollution code, he said.

But Mr Vis said the Commission was against voluntary agreements, which encouraged industry to do the bare minimum rather than forcing it to recognise that significant emission-reductions were inevitable over the long term. The Department of the Environment was unwilling to comment on Mr Vis's remarks.

The meeting also heard that the Government's mooted carbon tax would affect the poor disproportionately. ESRI economist Prof John Fitzgerald said low-income households relied more heavily on inefficient heating than other segments of society.

He advised the European Commission to announce a ban on high-pollutant cars within 12 years, arguing that it would force the motor industry to produce more-efficient vehicles. Raising car taxes, in contrast, would merely harm consumers and create resentment.