Vol. 477 No. 5
21 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for the Environment the progress, if any, to date in implementing commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6918/97]
The principal commitment under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC 1992) is for developed countries to return by the end of the present decade to earlier levels of manmade CO 2 emissions. Other commitments relate to the preparation of national and regional programmes for climate change abatement, national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions, and national communications for submission to the Convention Secretariat.
Ireland is participating in the EU policy objective of stabilising overall Union CO 2 emissions at their 1990 level by the year 2000; this objective is on course. Ireland, in common with many other countries, has also adopted a national CO 2 abatement strategy and undergone review by the Convention Secretariat in relation to its first national communication. A second national communication will be submitted to the Secretariat shortly.
The first conference of the parties to UNFCCC concluded in 1995 that the original Convention commitments were not adequate in face of the urgent problems of climate change. The strengthening of these commitments is now being addressed by an international negotiation process due to conclude in December 1997. The EU has adopted a leading role in these negotiations by proposing that developed country parties should, individually or jointly, reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent by the year 2010 relative to 1990.
