Trevor Sargent
Ceist:16 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment when he foresees the policy of greenhouse gas abatement giving way to a policy of greenhouse gas reduction in Ireland. [12889/97]
Written Answers. - Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Under the national CO 2 abatement strategy, Ireland has been committed to limiting its CO 2 emissions for the year 2000 to +20 per cent over their 1990 level. It is now projected that CO 2 emissions in 2000 will be well within this target. For the purposes of the current negotiations to strengthen the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ireland has adopted an indicative national objective of limiting the growth in total emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide by the year 2010, to 15 per cent above 1990 levels. This national objective, which is the most ambitious adopted by a cohesion member state, is in the context of an EU proposal to reduce overall Community emissions of greenhouse gases by 15 per cent compared to 1990 levels and to press for other developed countries, individually or joinly, to take similar action.
Ireland's objectives in this area are consistent with the EU climate change strategy which recognises that member states are entitled to have CO 2 and-or other strategies corresponding to their economic and social development, while improving the energy efficiency of their economic activity and contributing to the overall Community objective; and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change which recognises the need to take into account differences in parties' starting points, economic structures and resource bases, the need for strong and sustainable econommic growth and other individual circumstances.
A major study is also under way to identify and evaluate the scope for intensifying existing policies and measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions.