Without "firm action", Ireland's carbon dioxide emissions could be as high as 55 per cent above 1990 levels in the year 2010, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said yesterday, Frank McDonald reports.Addressing the Kyoto summit, Mr Dempsey said the Government had "intensified" its action to deal with the problem, focusing on energy conservation and renewable energy programmes. "We are improving building insulation standards. We are pursuing a strategy aimed at greater use of public transport and we have an extensive afforestation programme," the Minister said.
Mr Dempsey said Ireland's "indicative target" was a 15 per cent cap on the growth of these emissions in the context of the EU's plan to achieve an equivalent overall reduction for the Union as a whole. "No one country can act on its own to protect the global climate system," he declared.
Joe Humphreys adds: The Irish Business and Employers Confederation last night welcomed the movement towards lower cuts as the Kyoto conference drew towards a close.
Ms Rosemary Dean, assistant director of trade and industry affairs at IBEC, said the original EU burden-sharing proposal, under which Ireland pledged to cap the increase in its emissions at 15 per cent, was "unrealistic . . . Although the green movement may be disappointed by the new reduction target it is better in that it is attainable."
Ms Dean stressed that Irish business wished to continue to play a responsible role in tackling climate change and expressed disappointment that many of the more innovative measures appear to have been dropped during negotiations.