Vol. 510 No. 6
78 Mr. Dukes asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the obligations, if any, Ireland has undertaken as a result of the fifth United Nations climate conference held in Bonn in October 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23449/99]
86 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the position Ireland adopted at the recent intergovernmental conference in Bonn to discuss further measures to combat climate change; the specific steps, if any, planned to implement the commitment contained in the review of An Action Programme for the Millennium to introduce a national greenhouse gas abatement strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23307/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 86 together.
The fifth conference of the parties, COP5, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, was held in Bonn from 25 October to 5 November. I attended the high level segment from 2 to 4 November. The main emphasis at COP5 was to maintain political momentum towards the necessary decisions at COP6 which will be held in The Hague in November 2000, and to secure adequate arrangements at UN level to make the necessary technical and drafting progress over the next year with a view to the early entry into force of the protocol.
The position that I adopted at COP5 was in line with the overall EU position, which was to maintain its lead role in the negotiations, and make progress on outstanding issues under the convention and the protocol to keep up the momentum of Kyoto, so that sufficient parties will have ratified it to enter into force by 2002 – the tenth anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, when the convention was signed.
I made clear Ireland's opposition to the inclusion of nuclear energy projects under the clean development mechanism of the protocol. This is a project based flexibility mechanism still under negotiation, whereby countries with targets may receive emissions credits for investment in sustainable development projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in countries without targets.
A number of decisions at COP5 settled important substantive technical issues. Agreement was reached on how to improve the rigour of national reports from industrialised countries and strengthen the guidelines for measuring their greenhouse gas emissions. COP5 also pointed the way forward for determining how to address adverse effects on developing countries and how to account for carbon sequestration for afforestation, reforestation and deforestation.
The national greenhouse gas abatement strategy is currently at an advanced stage of preparation. I have asked Comhar, the national sustainable development partnership, to consider and make recommendations to me on the draft by mid-December.
