Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I recognised Deputy Cuffe's positive contributions on two occasions. I believe in praise where praise is due but also believe in the truth in this. Sadly, while the Deputy's sentiment is correct, this Bill would make no sense. It would do us irreparable damage and there is no logic to what the Deputy is proposing.

The overall greenhouse gas reduction targets to which the Bill refers are not based on internationally agreed reduction commitments. They are, in fact, the goals adopted by the European Council earlier this year with a view towards the commencement of negotiations on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. They are goals, not agreements.

In this context, I want to be clear that the Government takes seriously its existing climate change commitments. We will take on our fair share of whatever commitments are agreed as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto is the only existing internationally binding agreement that controls emissions of greenhouse gases. There is no logic in anticipating other agreements which have not yet been reached.

The debate is in a sense opportune, given that the 11th conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place in Montreal. I will attend the ministerial segment of the meeting which takes place next week. The meeting will incorporate for the first time the parties to the Kyoto Protocol since ratification by Russia and the taking effect of the protocol, and will provide the occasion for the formal adoption of the 2001 Marrakesh Accords for fulfilling parties' Kyoto Protocol commitments. Those accords set out the detailed methodologies by which the Kyoto Protocol is implemented and the parties' commitments are tracked, and they do not include the proposition the Deputies are making here.

As I have mentioned, the Montreal meeting will also present the first formal opportunity for parties to discuss the future of the international climate change process after the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires in 2012. The European Union will seek to engage parties on the key issues of how to build on the Kyoto Protocol. This will be done with a view to achieving the ultimate objective of stabilising concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases at a safe level.

What such a safe level should be has been quantified and articulated by the European Council of Ministers at the Environment Council meeting in March and subsequently at the Spring European Council. The EU made considerable progress in defining its position on a medium and long-term strategy to counter climate change. In summary, it was agreed that to fulfil the EU objective of limiting global annual mean temperature increases to a maximum of 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration levels will need to be stabilised "well below 550 parts per million volume CO2 equivalent".

To achieve these stabilisation levels, global emissions of greenhouse gases will need to peak within two decades, followed by a substantial reduction of at least 15% and possibly by as much as 50% by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. The EU is willing to consider emissions reduction targets for industrialised countries of 15% to 30% by 2020 and 60% to 80% by 2050. These proposed targets are intended as the basis for international discussions on further action. In the context of this debate, I must stress that they are in no way binding on the EU at this time.

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