Government urged to treat climate change seriously

An environmental organisation is calling on the Government to treat the issues for climate change as seriously as they are treating this year's budget.

Friends of the Earth is launching its pre-budget briefing today and wants Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to deliver on the promise of introducing a carbon levy.

The organisation's Director, Oisin Coghlan, says we will know on Tuesday whether or not the Government is serious about its commitments under the Kyoto agreement.

‘The most important question is how will the minister respond to the bill that tax payers will have to face for failure to commitment to our Kyoto commitments.

‘If we take decisive action we can certainly reduce how much we miss it by. It would be very difficult now to actually meet it but there is still time to make a big difference, he said.