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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 3 May 1995

Vol. 452 No. 3

Written Answers. - CO2 Emissions.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

102 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment in view of the fact that Ireland has signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992, and that the European Union is committed to stabilising the Union's carbon dioxide emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000, the reason for the increase in Ireland's emission of CO2 and the reason for not meeting targets as set out in the policy document from the Department of the Environment entitled Ireland Climate Change-CO2 Abatement Strategy June 1993, in particular in view of the ESB not managing the demand growth in electricity to the target 3 per cent per year. [7906/95]

The European Union has adopted the objective of stabilising CO2 emissions in the Union as a whole at 1990 levels by the year 2000. As part of this policy, it is recognised that countries such as Ireland with, as yet, relatively low energy requirements, which can be expected to grow in step with their development, may need targets and strategies which can accommodate that development, while improving the energy efficiency of their economic activities.

Ireland's national CO2 Abatement Strategy was formulated in 1993 with the objective of limiting the increase in CO2 emissions to 20 per cent over 1990 levels by the year 2000. Latest reviews indicate that it may be possible to implement a lower limit on Irish CO2 emissions for the year 2000.
Despite the growth in electricity consumption so far in the 1990s, it is an objective to manage the growth in electricity demand towards the level of 3 per cent per annum, while not constricting national economic growth.
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