Irish Aid today unveiled a policy document outlining its plans to integrate environmental sustainability into its development programmes.
The Environment Policy for Sustainable Development, announced this evening, lays down the group's objectives in environmental sustainability and puts forward a number of strategies.
The strategies propose establishing partnerships with international organisations that will allow Irish Aid to directly contribute to environmentally sustainable activities in developing countries, and support disaster risk and early warning programmes.
Irish Aid also plans to increase its energy efficiency and recycling, while cutting back on carbon emissions by developing of a workplace policy on the environment.
Conor Lenihan, Minister of State for Irish Aid and Human Rights, said: "Recent international reports illustrate all too graphically how we are all under threat from climate change - but particularly those living in developing countries.
"They will suffer the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change, although they contribute little to the causes of the problem."
Irish Aid works with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to meet Ireland's environmnental commitments working on issues such as climate change, biodiversity and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
