THE LEVELS of greenhouse gases which Irish industries will be allowed to emit until the end of 2012 have been published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), following their approval by the EU last month.
The European Commission accepted Ireland's National Allocation Plan in early February paving the way for the EPA to tell each industry in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) how many emissions allowances or "carbon credits", it would be allocated for the period 2008-2012.
Under the Kyoto agreement, Ireland is required to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to just 13 per cent above their 1990 level by 2012. Restrictions are put on industries that are heavy emitters of carbon, by requiring them to remain within the limits or allowances which have now been published by the EPA.
Ireland had sought to have a national emissions allowance, to cover all industries which are part of the ETS, of 22.6 million tonnes of carbon a year, but in late 2006 was told by the EU that it must cap emissions at 21.15 million tonnes a year.
The Government since entered into negotiations with the commission in relation to this threshold resulting in an agreement to cap emissions from Irish industries at 22.281 tonnes a year. Each tonne is equal to one allowance and these allowances are now shared between the ETS industries.
More than 100 companies are part of the scheme. These fall into three sectors: power generation, cement and general. Certain companies such as An Bord Gáis and the ESB fall within the remit of the scheme as power generating industries. But the general category covers a wide range of enterprises and includes institutions such as St James's Hospital, Dublin, and the Dairygold Co-operative Society.
The full list of emissions allocations is available on the EPA website.
