Friends of the Earth has published a Climate Protection Bill that would set legally-binding targets for cutting Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions - starting with the Government's target for 2010.
Under the National Climate Change Strategy, published on April 2nd, the Government said it planned to reduce emissions to 68.29 million tonnes in 2010 through a variety of measures, including the development of renewable energy.
Publication of the Bill follows the introduction of legislation in California requiring an 80 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050 and the publication of a climate Bill by the British government requiring cuts of 60 per cent by the same date.
Friends of the Earth's Irish director Oisín Coghlan said yesterday: "Only a law can make sure Ireland does its fair share to prevent climate chaos. Otherwise, politicians have difficulty delivering on long-term targets."
Asked if the environmental pressure group had enlisted the support of political parties to table the Bill, he said: "We haven't yet asked them explicitly. But in talking to the parties over the past six months, we said this was the way to go.
"None of them will be surprised, because they all know what we've been saying. It's a Bill for the medium- to longer term, and it takes the Government's own target for 2010 as its starting point. We're asking the political parties to support it.
"We need a sea-change in how we live, work and travel in Ireland and it simply can't be done at the last minute. The Climate Protection Act provides the right framework to help us make the shift in a managed, step-by-step way." Mr Coghlan said all parties in Ireland now accepted that much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would be needed in the coming years, after the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change ran out in 2102.
He said emissions would need to be cut by three per cent each year from 2010 until 2050 if Ireland was to meet EU targets. The Bill would require emissions to fall from 70 million tonnes a year now to 50 million in 2020 and 20 million in 2050.
It would also require the Minister for the Environment to present an annual progress report to the Dáil, acting on the advice of an independent commission on climate change; a minister who failed to deliver would face a motion of no confidence.
The members of the commission would all have expertise related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions and would be appointed by a procedure to be provided for in regulations that would guarantee their independence.
Mr Coghlan said global warming was "nothing short of a planetary emergency". By legislating to cut carbon emissions, Ireland could "do its fair share to tackle climate change while also setting an example internationally."
He added that the publication on Good Friday of the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "provides the starkest warning yet" on the severe consequences that the Earth would face unless world leaders took urgent action.
