Roche to attend UN climate change conference in Nairobi

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche is due to travel to Nairobi later today to attend a UN conference on climate change.

The conference is focusing on the next steps to take after the Kyoto Protocol comes to an end in six years' time.

That agreement requires industrialised nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2012.

However, the United States - the world's largest polluter - has refused to ratify the treaty and many other industrial nations are failing to meet their targets.

Ireland has been identified as one of the worst countries for tackling emissions in recent years.