asked the Minister for the Environment if it is the Government's intention to make a commitment to reduce national nitrogen oxide emissions; and if so, by when, in view of the fact that 12 western European nations have already agreed to meet this target although Ireland is not listed among them.
Written Answers. - National Nitrogen Oxide Emissions.
56.
On 1 May 1989 Ireland signed a Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, commonly referred to as the Geneva Convention concerning the control of emissions of nitrogen oxides or their transboundary fluxes.
The principal requirement of the Protocol is the stabilisation by 31 December 1994, of national emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) at 1987 levels. The Protocol also requires parties to it to commence negotiations in due course on further steps to reduce NOx emissions.
Projections of future national emissions show that, without controls, Irish Nox emissions would increase considerably by the end of this century, largely as a result of increasing demand for electricity in a growing economy. We are, however, committed to participating actively in the international fight against air pollution and, while nitrogen oxide emissions do not present an environmental problem here, action will be taken, in line with the Protocol, to stabilise these emissions and reduce them below the level they would reach on existing trends.
Compliance with the Protocol in Ireland will involve not only the fitting of low NOx technology to new power plant, but also the retrofitting of a significant proportion of our existing power plant. It will also involve controls on industrial emissions and the introduction of more stringent vehicle emission controls.