New data from the Environmental Protection Agency shows the Government is facing a massive struggle in tackling greenhouse gas emissions, because the problem is worse than previously thought.
EPA Director General Dr Mary Kelly has described EU plans to reduce emissions up to the year 2020 as 'extremely challenging' and called for strategies to be urgently 'intensified and strengthened'.
Last Sunday, RTÉ News revealed that Ireland had significantly underestimated the amount of greenhouse gas emissions which will be emitted into the atmosphere over the next five years, particularly in agriculture and transport.
Now the EPA has released data confirming the trend.
Ireland is not just considerably over its Kyoto Protocol target, but the problem is projected to be worse than previously thought.
The EPA has also gone further, to express particular concern over targets pending under a planned EU energy strategy, which will demand that Ireland reduce its emissions by 20%, if not 30%, by the year 2020.
Dr Kelly says achieving this in sectors like agriculture, transport and residential is going to be very difficult without what she terms 'radical change'.
Unlike Kyoto, Ireland can not simply purchase credits for over-producing emissions under the EU plan, and therefore the EPA says 'very significant increases in alternative energy' are required and forestry must play a crucial role.
