Ireland yesterday joined the other EU member-states in formally ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change at a special ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
"This is a very important day in international action to tackle climate change, the most serious global environmental problem facing us and future generations," said the outgoing Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey.
By ratifying the treaty, the EU is maintaining its "lead role" in the Kyoto process with the aim of bringing it into force before the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg at the end of August.
Mr Dempsey recalled that he had helped to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997. It was "an historic breakthrough at the time and I am very pleased to conclude our ratification under the same Government".
Once the protocol had entered into force, Ireland would be internationally-bound to meet "challenging greenhouse gas emissions reduction obligations over this decade" under the Government's climate change strategy, he said.
The Kyoto Protocol commits industrialised countries to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2012. As part of the deal, the EU agreed to cut its emissions by 8 per cent.
Under an EU burden-sharing arrangement agreed in June 1998, Ireland is permitted to increase its emissions by 13 per cent over the period - "an environmentally challenging but economically feasible target", according to Mr Dempsey.
However, because of spectacular economic growth in recent years, emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases had already risen by nearly 24 per cent in 2000 and could overshoot the target by an even wider margin.
"There is no room for complacency," the Minister said. "We now must make actual reductions in emissions to meet our Kyoto target" - through full implementation of the climate change strategy he published in November 2000.
In a progress report published yesterday, Mr Dempsey said that measures already under way in the first year would yield some 20 per cent of the required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the rest of the decade.
These included implementation this year of revised insulation standards in the Building Regulations to reduce space heating requirements for housing by up to 33 per cent, yielding an estimated cut in CO2 emissions of 300,000 tonnes a year.
More efficient gas and peat-fired power plants would also make a contribution, while the latest alternative energy programme - including an offshore wind farm on the Arklow Bank - would lead to a cut of over one million tonnes of CO2 per annum.
In the transport sector, all new cars would have to be labelled for fuel economy and CO2 emissions while priority was being given to public transport with better traffic management, more quality bus corridors and the creation of cycleway networks.
"This is a crucial first step in credible action to reduce our emissions by the necessary amount," Mr Dempsey said. "Changes are necessary at all levels of society, and actions at the level of the individual cumulatively make a real difference."
