The Green Party today hit out at the Government's latest strategy to encourage people to go green, insisting it is too little too late.
Even though there is a commitment to generate one third of electricity from renewables, the Greens said it goes nowhere near what is needed.
Among the pledges are energy efficient rules for hospitals and public buildings, tighter building regulations, an emphasis on bio-fuels and new rules for power stations.
But Eamon Ryan, Green Party energy spokesman, said it was only now, in the last weeks of the government, that steps were being taken to encourage greener living.
"We know that we will need to cut our use of fossil fuel energy by at least a third by 2020 to meet our climate change obligations, but the Government's own energy experts predict that energy use is going to increase by a third over the same period," he said.
"The plans announced today will go nowhere near bringing about the scale of change that is required.
Noel Dempsey, Minister for Communications, Marine & Natural Resources, said the Bioenergy Action Plan for Ireland was a significant move to tackle renewable energy policy in an integrated and holistic manner.
And he said the new approach will cut CO2 by two million tonnes a year.
"We recognised early that the transport, heat and electricity sectors are almost equal in the amount of energy they use and the CO2 emissions they produce," he said.
"In this plan we set out clear, cross department strategies to deal with each of these sectors. The end result will be CO2 savings in the region of two million tonnes a year. This is extremely good news for the environment."
The Government's action plan has several commitments including: By 2020 a third of all electricity consumed in Ireland will come from renewable sources such as wind, tidal, solar; All peat electricity power stations will be co-fired by 30 per cent renewable material by 2015, cutting CO2 emissions by 900,000 tonnes per year; 12 per cent of all residential and commercial heating will be powered by renewable sources such as wood chips or solar by 2020 — 5 per cent by 2010; By 2009 a new biofuel obligation will mean all petrol and diesel will have on average a 5.75 per cent biofuel mix, cutting CO2 emissions by 770,000 tonnes a year;
Mr Dempsey also said the targets were ambitious but would help create a new industry here.
"Bioenergy can provide a continuous and predictable clean energy source that has enormous potential for reducing Ireland's dependence on fossil fuel imports," he said.