A fourfold increase in carbon taxes is “on the table” for the forthcoming budget, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has declared.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, infuriated Brexiteers when he suggested there was a “special place in hell” for those who pushed for Brexit “without even a sketch of a plan”.

Markets don’t believe Opec’s output plans will work

Environmental action could terminate a state-backed oil exploration deal in Norway that provides lucrative taxes, writes Mikael Holter.

Oil slipped under $46 a barrel yesterday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) reported that the group’s production climbed last month.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has raised pricing for July sales of all crude grades to Asia, the US, and north-west Europe.

Crude headed for its longest run of gains this year as Libya’s biggest oil field suffered another outage while Russia signalled it is weighing an extension of Opec-led production cuts.

A stalled gas supply project proposed for the south-west is now back on track over energy concerns arising from Brexit.

This year looks set to be a defining one for Ireland’s energy landscape, writes Geoff Percival.

Communities are hitting back at a surge in solar farm construction spreading across the country with no specific planning guidelines in place to regulate them.

Opec clinched a deal to curtail oil supply, confounding sceptics as the need to clear a record global crude glut — and prove the group’s credibility — brought its first cuts in eight years.

Oil climbed as Iraq’s oil minister said it pledged to co-operate with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to reach an agreement this week that’s acceptable to all members.

Nine soldiers and eight civilians have been killed when Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb outside a military checkpoint in south-east Turkey, the local governor said.

Energy Minister Denis Naughten is to keep in contact with Britain over the controversial new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point — but he says expert analysis shows there is nothing to fear from the facility.

A veteran anti-nuclear campaigner has said Ireland should not be afraid to offend Britain by insisting on the shutdown of Sellafield.

Crude oil futures pared gains yesterday after top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia confirmed they had agreed to co-operate on stabilising the oil market, including limiting output.

Oil gained after Opec’s president said the group will hold informal talks in Algiers next month and predicted the current bear market would be short lived.

The new owners of the country’s only oil refinery, Whitegate, Co Cork, have confirmed it is their “full intention” to run the facility as an operating refinery over the long-term and maintain its entire workforce of close to 300 employees.

The newly appointed Energy Minister Denis Naughten has no intention of meeting companies interested in buying the country’s only oil refinery.

Five British Cabinet ministers have declared they will campaign to leave the European Union - despite a stark warning from David Cameron that an "out" vote would be a "leap in the dark".

The Government has rejected enshrining rights in the Constitution for ethnic minorities — including Travellers — to practise their cultures, despite an independent body recommending the move.

Energy Minister Alex White has signalled that long- awaited guidelines on windfarms in communities may not be changed or even decided before the general election.

Some €130m is to be spent on energy efficiency programmes to help thousands of people struggling to pay high energy bills.

Cork is expected to get the go-ahead for vital road investment today with the promise of three key infrastructure projects for the second city at a cost of hundreds of millions of euro.

Wind Aware Ireland will no longer engage in meaningless discussions with the Labour Party, who appear to be working in the interests of wind-farm developers instead of the Irish people.

Energy minister Alex White claims proposed planning guidelines to distance windfarms from communities by at least 1km would “kill off” wind farm production.

The firm that operates the State’s only oil refinery has received a cash injection of $200m (€179.9m).

Greek firefighters battled large bush and forest fires on the outskirts of Athens and in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region, where flames forced the evacuation of at least three villages and two summer camps.

Greek politicians are debating an austerity bill ahead of a vote that will condemn the country to years of more budget savings, but is needed to get a desperately needed new bailout.

The Government has been urged to set up a taskforce to secure the future of the country’s only oil refinery and nationalise it in the process.

The potential sale of the country’s only oil refinery in Whitegate, Co Cork is back on the table despite its parent company appearing to pull the plug on the sales process last year.

Greece cannot make debt repayments to the IMF next month unless it achieves a deal with creditors, its interior minister said yesterday, the most explicit remarks yet from Athens about the likelihood of default if talks fail.

A conference hosted this week by UCC will hear calls for certain fossil fuels to remain in the ground to limit future global warming.

USA: Walt Disney World must rehire three performers who were fired when they refused to wear soiled Spandex unitards as part of their costumes for the “Festival of the Lion King” show, an arbitrator ruled.

Greece has invited Chinese firms to bid in a tender for deep-sea oil and gas exploration later this year after Athens extended the bidding process in March.

Labour delegates have defied the party leadership and insisted young unemployed people should have their full jobseeker benefits restored after controversial cuts were imposed by the coalition.

Electric Ireland has become the third energy supplier in just over a month to cut prices for households.