The Northern Assembly may set climate change targets for Northern Ireland, a Minister said last night.
After a meeting on climate change legislation in London with her devolved and UK government counterparts, Stormont Environment Minister Arlene Foster held out the possibility that carbon emission targets could be set in the Assembly.
"There will be an issue over the coming weeks on whether we should set our own targets and fall into line with the UK's," she revealed. "It is a debate we need to have in Northern Ireland but we are keeping our options open. If we do go down the route of setting our own targets, we will have to decide whether they will be voluntary or statutory.
"Effectively we would be setting targets for 2050, which many of us will probably not be around for but given the experience we had last week with the flash floods, it is important that we address climate change."
The UK's environment secretary David Miliband is hoping Britain could become the first country to set legally-binding carbon reduction targets.
The draft climate change Bill contains a call for an independent panel to set the government a "carbon budget" every five years, as part of a drive to cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
Failure to meet the target would result in the government being taken to court. In Scotland, the previous executive set a target of reducing its carbon emissions by 1.7 million tonnes.
Mrs Foster was accompanied by Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew.