CLIMATE CHANGE: Ireland is "committed and determined" to meet its national target under the Kyoto Protocol by capping the increase in greenhouse gas emissions at 13 per cent above their 1990 levels by 2012, the UN climate change summit has been told.
Batt O'Keeffe, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, said Ireland welcomed Kyoto coming into force and would encourage other countries "to build on this historic achievement in the international effort to combat global climate change".
Delivering the national statement on behalf of Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, who arrived later yesterday, he said Ireland was working to achieve its target through emission reductions, carbon trading and using the protocol's "flexible mechanisms".
But Mr O'Keeffe said the Government "fully recognised" that Kyoto was "no more than a first step" and that the task of reducing the threat posed by climate change, in the context of the UN Framework Convention "remains enormous and increasingly urgent".
Though further progress could be made under Kyoto, he said this challenge required a greater and wider international effort. "We have come here in good faith to discuss further commitments and we are ready to engage in genuinely open dialogue on a way forward."
In an oblique reference to the US and countries such as China, he said: "We urge the constructive engagement of all significant greenhouse gas emitters - be they developed or developing country parties - in a concerted and truly global response to climate change."
One of the most immediate priorities was the need to assist some of the world's poorest countries in adapting to its impacts.
To this end, Mr O'Keeffe said Ireland had recently made further contributions to the UN's special climate change fund for least developed countries.