The Green Party has condemned the Government over its environmental record following the revelation that Ireland has done the least of all EU countries to adhere to the Kyoto Agreement.
Figures released yesterday by the EU's environmental watchdog, The European Environment Agency (EEA), indicate that of the fifteen members of the European Union, Ireland has done the least to comply with the terms of the Kyoto Agreement.
The Green MEP for Dublin, Patricia McKenna said "this is yet another example of our government's lack of commitment to environmental protection. Their cavalier attitude to the Kyoto agreement risks landing the taxpayer with substantial fines in the years to come."
"Even major industrialised countries like Germany have succeeded in reducing their emissions by eighteen per cent since 1990," she added.
"If urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not taken immediately then Ireland will be faced with two serious problems," added Ms McKenna.
Calling on the Government to invest in renewable energy and the development of a transport policy that would reduce emissions, Ms McKenna warned: "Not only will we be damaging the environment, but we will have to pay substantial fines in the form of emissions trading."
The Kyoto Protocol sets a deadline of 2008-2012 for industrialised signatories to make a reduction in greenhouse gases as compared to the levels that prevailed in 1990.
However, by 2001 - the latest year for which figures are available, Ireland had increased its pollution by 31 per cent, well above the permitted 13% increase from 1990 levels.
The European Union as a whole had pledged a reduction of eight percent, shared among its 15 members.
EU emissions of the six carbon-based gases targeted for cuts under the Kyoto Protocol rose by 1 per cent in 2001.
By the end of 2001, the EU decrease in emissions was 2.3 per cent compared with 1990 levels, the EEA said. In 2000, emissions were 3.3 per cent lower than in 1990 and in 1999 3.6 per cent lower.
The latest survey found that greenhouse-gas pollution by the European Union as a whole rose for the second year running, moving it farther from the goals set down by the UN's pact on global warming.
This was blamed a colder winter, which caused many households to burn more fossil fuels, and also higher emissions from road transport.
Ten of the 15 EU countries "are heading towards overshooting their agreed share... by a wide margin," the Copenhagen-based EEA warned.
These are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
The United States - the biggest polluter in the world, accounting by itself for a quarter of all pollution - abandoned the protocol in 2001 after President George W. Bush took office.
Agencies