Ireland plans to increase only slightly the amount of environmentally harmful carbon dioxide that companies will be allowed to emit in 2008-12, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said today.
But the carbon emissions allowances are slightly lower than the originally planned allocation outlined in the EPA's draft allocation plan released in May.
The EPA plans to allocate a total of 113.19 million tonnes in carbon emissions allowances between 2008 and 2012 - or 22.638 million a year - as part of its commitment to global agreements on limiting heat-trapping carbon emissions.
That compares to 22.3 million tonnes a year in the pilot scheme for 2005-7.