The so-called 'carbon budget' unveiled by Minister for the Environment John Gormley today has received mixed reaction from lobby groups and opposition parties.
Business group Ibec said it was disappointed the carbon budget lacked the central element of any budget - the cost of the various policy options proposed.
Ibec head of business infrastructure Donal Buckley said: "Current Government policy documents such as the National Climate Change Strategy, Energy White Paper and Energy Efficiency Action Plan contain numerous measures to reduce emissions."
Comhar - the Sustainable Development Council - welcomed today's announcement that motor tax and VRT will be altered to favour cars with lower levels of carbon dioxide emissions. But the body said it was disappointed a full carbon levy was not introduced.
Chair of Comhar Professor Frank Convery noted that the Government has indicated that the issue of a carbon levy will be referred to a new Commission on Taxation for further study.
"However, we believe the levy should have been implemented without waiting for the proposed Commission to complete its assessment," he said.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said there was nothing in the carbon budget that hadn't already been announced and "very little in the way of ambitious, radical proposals".
"There are no detailed practical measures in agriculture, industry or waste set out by the Minister as to how he is going to reduce emissions," Mr Hogan said.
"We need a well thought out policy framework rather than aspirational targets. The VRT Reforms announced yesterday were already factored into emissions projections so these will not help in achieving the more ambitious targets set out in the Programme for Government."
Labour's environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy said today's carbon budget was "more an admission of failure as regards the green agenda as opposed to a new greener dawn".
"The Minister's speech confirms what was predicted in a European Commission report two weeks ago that our carbon reductions would be largely bought as opposed to achieved," she said.
"How green is that way of going about meeting our Kyoto targets? A genuine commitment to tackling climate change would have involved using the purchase of carbon credits as a last resort as opposed to our mainstay to achieve our Kyoto targets."
In Dublin today, a group called Stop Climate Chaos presented Taoiseach Bertie Ahern with a petition calling him to act on climate change.
The group said over 22,000 people had signed the petition, including 24 Fianna Fáil TDs, 28 Fine Gael TDs, 15 Labour TDs, three Green TDs, three Independent TDs and four Sinn Féin TDs. Stop Climate Change plans a public march in Dublin on Saturday.
In Galway, meanwhile, Green Party councillor Niall Ó Brolcháin called on Galway City Council to put in place a programme to phase out all low-energy efficiency light bulbs and replace them with high energy efficiency ones in all its properties. Minister for the Environment John Gormley today signalled his intention to phase out incandescent lightbulbs by 2009.