John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Ireland's commitment under the Kyoto Protocol is to limit emissions to 13% above 1990 levels. The Government's policy framework for meeting this commitment is set out in the National Climate Change Strategy 2007-12, published in April 2007. The strategy addresses emissions across all sectors of the economy and sets out a series of measures that, collectively, will reduce emissions by over 17 million tonnes each year over the period 2008 to 2012. This will enable Ireland to meet its Kyoto Protocol commitments. Furthermore, of the 17 million tonne reductions each year, 13.6 million tonnes relate to reductions in domestic emissions.

The programme for Government sets a challenging target of a 3% reduction per year on average in our greenhouse gas emissions over the lifetime of the Government. Ireland will fulfil its Kyoto Protocol commitment as far as possible by emissions reductions through domestic action rather than the purchase of credits and, therefore, achieve the 3% annual reduction on average between now and 2012. As I set out in this year's carbon budget, meeting this commitment will enable the Government to limit its purchase of credits to no more than 1 million tonnes per annum during the 2008 to 2012 period.

In future carbon budgets, I will be aiming at introducing further measures with a view to minimising the requirement to supplement domestic action with the purchase of credits through the Kyoto Protocol flexible mechanisms. As a result, Ireland will be better prepared to manage more demanding greenhouse gas emission reductions in the period to 2020 and beyond.

The programme for Government also seeks to establish cross-party agreement on longer-term emissions reductions. I look forward to achieving agreement in this regard through the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security.

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