Green-tinged government delivers just one shade — green light

THIS budget wasn’t quite the green budget it was heralded as; perhaps better described as ‘green light’.

As promised under the Programme for Government, a carbon report was issued by the Minister for Finance, in which he revealed the country is emitting 70 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. Mr Cowen said he intended reducing that figure to an annual average of 63m tonnes between 2008 and 2012.

Environment Minister John Gormley is due to give details on the country’s progress in meeting Kyoto protocol targets in his department briefing today.