Labour: Government must change attitude to emissions

The Labour Party says the Government needs to change its attitude to greenhouse gas emissions if it wants Ireland to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche is due to launch an official Climate Change Strategy this afternoon outlining the Government's plans for meeting Kyoto targets.

However, Labour TD Eamon Gilmore says the Government is already adopting the wrong approach by proposing to buy carbon credits to make up for Ireland's failure to reduce emissions.

He says the Government wants to "pollute now and pay later" and could end up spending €1bn of taxpayers' money on carbon credits.

"Their whole strategy seems to be based on buying our way out of the Kyoto commitments," Mr Gilmore says.

"They've set aside €250m to buy carbon credits, but I think [the bill] will be up around €1bn."