Ireland will be among the EU countries to have sent plans for curbing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to the European Commission ahead of a midnight deadline.
Commission officials expect several states to miss the cut-off point but the Department of the Environment and Local Government have confirmed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will have sent its plan to the Commission later today.
Member states are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, which requires reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases to 8 per cent below 1990 levels in two phases covering 2005 - 2007 and 2008 - 2012.
The EPA has been given the responsibility for implementing the Emissions Trading Directive in Ireland. The directive allows emission allowances to be bought and sold by facilities - such as factories and processing plants - in member states.
By midnight, each facility covered by the scheme must hold a greenhouse gas emissions trading permit and have been allocated their allowance.
Failure to comply could lead to the Commission taking legal action against member states.
Finland was the first to submit its plan to the Commission's environment unit while Germany and Denmark have also made their submissions.
"The deadline runs to midnight so that means that we await a number of plans later on today," Ms Ewa Hedlund, the Commission's environment spokeswoman, told a daily news briefing.
"The date when they [plans] are sent by post is also valid. We hope as many as possible will meet the deadline," she said.
If a country can prove, by postmark, that it sent a plan before the deadline, it will escape a Commission infringement letter - a first warning of impending legal action.
Although several states have said they will miss the deadline, this is not seen as threatening the launch of Environmental Trading Scheme.
Britain, France and Belgium have conceded that they will not be able to submit on time, and there are also doubts over Italy. And Spain will ask for a short derogation because it is undergoing a change of government.
Additional reporting: Reuters