The Minister for Climate Action has been accused of having a "lack of ambition" to tackle Irish emission levels.

Denis Naughten told a conference on climate change in Germany yesterday that small countries like Ireland "don't have the capacity or resources to do everything" to tackle climate change.

The Deputy Executive Director at charity Trócaire said that Ireland ranks the worst in Europe when it comes to emissions and that does not look like it is going to change anytime soon.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Finola Finnan said it was "very disappointing to see we are the lowest of any European country."

She said: "We ranked 49 out of 50 countries, we are bottom of the class."

While she welcomed the minister's announcement of an additional €2.5 million for international climate action, she said what is also needed is decisions by leaders to figure out how Ireland can reach its emissions targets.

She said it would not be done through efficiency alone.

Ms Finnan also said it is clear Ireland will miss its 2020 emissions targets.

"We are definitely going to miss them, and in fact emissions are going up instead of down," she said.

Speaking in the Dáil earlier this week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Climate Change Performance report, which ranks Ireland among the worst in Europe, was not an official report.

The Taoiseach said he was informed that it is a ranking assessment published by three NGOs.

Mr Varadkar also said on Wednesday that the Government had been very upfront that Ireland expects to miss the 2020 emissions targets.