IRELAND:Ireland is projected to emit 5.5 million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2010 than it agreed to produce under the Kyoto Protocol.
However, the Government has told the EU it will meet its legal commitment to tackle climate change under the global agreement by buying carbon credits and investing in green energy projects abroad.
New statistics published yesterday by the European Commission show the Government is projecting that by 2010 emissions of CO2 will be 22.6 per cent above 1990 levels. This is almost 10 percentage points higher than the 13 per cent target set for the Republic under the Kyoto Protocol, a deal that committed 15 EU states in 1997 to reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions by 8 per cent on average between 2008 and 2012.
The Government's most recent projections show that by 2010 greenhouse gas emissions will grow to about 68.5 million tonnes, up from just 55.8 million tonnes in 1990. In 2005 the total level of greenhouse gas emissions stood at some 69.9 million tonnes.
The Republic's ballooning emissions of CO2 highlight the scale of the challenge facing the Government in meeting its commitments on climate change. Last night Minister for the Environment John Gormley reiterated that he was committed to making reductions of 3 per cent a year in greenhouse gas emissions and would unveil the first carbon budget report to the Dáil next week, which would outline his new approach.
In the meantime the Government has told the commission it will have to use flexible mechanisms such as buying carbon credits, creating carbon sinks to soak up CO2 in the atmosphere and investing in green energy projects abroad to meet its legal commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
In 2005 the Government set aside €290 million to buy 3.6 million tonnes worth of carbon credits a year to enable the Republic to meet its Kyoto commitments. However, the price of credits can fluctuate over time and experts predict they are likely to rise as many countries struggle to reach the commitments outlined in the agreement.
For example, the 15 EU states that signed up to Kyoto in 1997 are projected to fall 4 percentage points short of their overall target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8 per cent by 2010. And Denmark, Spain and Italy are currently expected to miss their Kyoto targets even when they buy carbon credits.
Environmental pressure groups have criticised EU states for making only lukewarm attempts to curb CO2 emissions at home and for relying instead on buying credits from abroad.
"Domestic action is something that needs to happen. Buying credits should come on top of these actions and not instead of them because they don't do anything to bring an individual country's emissions down," said Stephan Singer, a climate and energy expert at the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
The publication of the commission's report on member states' progress towards Kyoto comes just a week before key climate change talks in Bali. The EU is hoping the US will join a global mechanism to curb emissions.