Roche confident Ireland will meet Kyoto commitments

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has insisted that Ireland will meet its targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the next six years.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, countries across the world are required to reduce such emissions to 13% above 1990 levels by 2012.

Figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this week showed that Ireland's 2004 emissions were 23.1% higher than 1990 levels.

A report from the European Environmental Agency has also shown that transport-related pollution has risen at six times the EU average in Ireland in recent years.

Despite this, Mr Roche said today that he was confident Ireland would honour its Kyoto commitments.

"2004 was a year of very rapid economic growth. Our emissions grew very, very slightly. Most of that was in transport and, obviously, as we roll out big investments in public transport, we'll be able to reverse that," he said.