Irish Emmissions Target

onedoubleo

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/gormley-reveals-radical-plan-to-slash-irish-emissions-437883.html

So Ireland will have 80% reduction on carbon emmissions by 2050.

This is 40 years away, in that time we need to end our relliance on fossil fuels by such an extent that nearly everyone will have to have electric cars, our energy prodution will have to go to 95% renewable or nuclear(this is the way imo), just seems unrealistic.

Discuss

The Saint

Well its not like we have a good record in reaching such targets anyway.

THE Kyoto Protocol set Ireland’s target for greenhouse gas emissions at 13% higher than its 1990 level – yet in 2006 it was 24.5% higher.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/snidojmhid/rss2/

But it seems there is an upside to the recession.

THE FIRST official confirmation the economic downturn has led to a dramatic reduction in greenhouse emissions in Ireland will be announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today.

The new projections show Ireland’s emissions will be much closer at the end of 2012 to the ambitious targets set out in the Kyoto protocol, due to the slowdown in economic activity.

In recent years, Ireland’s emissions have come close to 70 million tonnes of CO2 per annum, some eight million tonnes above the Kyoto target. And only last September, the EPA projected that Ireland would have to purchase 3.6 million tonnes per annum under the terms of the Kyoto protocol.

But this latest update only six months later indicates a substantial reduction of more than 50 per cent on those projections. Now, according to the EPA, the purchasing requirement will be much lower, between 1.3 and 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0313/1224242799199.html

So there you have it. Recessions are good for the environment. Love live the recession. It seems like by being a shower of useless bastards the government has actually helped Ireland near it's commitments under Kyoto.