Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if, in determining the criteria for the designation of projects to be completed under the clean development mechanism or joint implementation as part of the State's Kyoto obligations, he has prioritised those projects adhering to a gold standard such as those recommended by the WWF initiated Gold Standard Foundation or has given the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines to this effect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13382/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012, which I published earlier this week, includes a National Policy Framework for the purchase of Kyoto Units by the State for the purpose of compliance with the Kyoto Protocol in the commitment period 2008-2012.

The purchasing framework provides that purchases shall be made in accordance with a number of specific objectives including "that they contribute to the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, i.e. stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".

In purchasing Kyoto Units, therefore, the key consideration is to ensure that projects from which allowances are generated have been approved by the relevant authority for the flexible mechanism concerned; for example, by the CDM Executive Board in the case of the Clean Development Mechanism.

As Purchasing Agent for the State, it will be a matter for the National Treasury Management Agency to develop and implement an appropriate purchasing programme, having regard to the purchasing framework set out in the National Climate Change Strategy. I have no plans at this time to give any further Direction to the Agency in relation to purchases for compliance purposes in the Kyoto Protocol commitments in the period 2008-2012.

The purchase of carbon allowances is a new departure for Ireland and a number of other Kyoto Parties, and it is very early in the process. My Department will keep the matter under review as the new international carbon matures and settles down, and experience builds up among Kyoto Parties who proposed to purchase carbon allowances.