The ESB's 900-megawatt generating station at Moneypoint, Co Clare, which supplies about 20 per cent of the State's electricity, could be closed down under a new climate change strategy adopted by the Government.
The closure of Moneypoint, which is the largest single contributor to Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, is one of the options being considered. Another would involve converting the coal-fired plant to natural gas.
Other measures proposed in the National Climate Change Strategy include a potential reduction of 10 per cent, or equivalent, in the national herd, with the aim of cutting methane emissions from agriculture - a high proportion of Ireland's total.
The document, published yesterday by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, after two years in gestation, also provides a framework for the phased introduction of taxes on greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide.
Given that transport is now the fastest-growing contributor to carbon dioxide emissions and is likely to increase by 180 per cent over the next 10 years, Vehicle Registration Tax is to be adjusted to favour more fuel-efficient cars, trucks and buses.
The house purchasers' grant scheme will also be adjusted to take account of new energy efficiency standards, to be specified in revisions to the Building Regulations.
Mr Dempsey said that the proposed measures amounted to a "radical blueprint for decoupling economic growth from the growth in greenhouse gas emissions", which would otherwise nearly triple over their 1990 levels by 2010.
Under an EU "burden-sharing arrangement" to implement the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Ireland signed up to cap the overall increase in its greenhouse gas emissions at 13 per cent above their 1990 levels by the target year of 2010.
However, because of unprecedented economic growth in recent years, the specified cap has already been exceeded. Without additional measures, which are to be applied "equitably" across all sectors of the economy, the increase would amount to 37 per cent.
"Our real challenge now is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 20 per cent in the next 10 years," the Minister said, adding that this would be done "in a manner that protects our economy".
The Minister's commitment to generating public awareness was welcomed last night by Mr John Gormley, the Green Party TD.
But Mr Gormley said the "fundamental problem" with the climate change strategy was that it conflicted with the National Development Plan. "The biggest increase in carbon dioxide emissions is in the transport sector, yet the Government is planning to build more roads," he said. "And what chance is there that the Minister will get his carbon tax when he hasn't even managed to introduce a tax on plastic bags?"
