The Environmental Protection Agency is aware of the Government's policy to limit Ireland's carbon dioxide emissions and "must have regard" to it when considering licence applications from industry, according to the Department of the Environment.
It was responding yesterday to a query from The Irish Times about the licensing of two coal-fired cement factories - one near Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, and the other near Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo - which are likely to add around 3 per cent to CO2 emissions.
While the EPA - like An Bord Pleanala - must take Government policies into account in making its decisions, a statement from the Department said it was "independent of the Minister in the performance of its functions in particular circumstances".
Under the Kyoto Protocol negotiated last December the European Union agreed to an 8 per cent cut in its overall emissions of greenhouse gases - including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane - below their 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
At a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg last month Ireland agreed to limit its emissions of these gases to 13 per cent above 1990 levels as its contribution to the EU "burden-sharing" package.
Following the adoption of this legally-binding target, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, announced his intention to develop a National Greenhouse Gas Abatement Strategy by the end of this year. This would cover all emissions from all sectors, including industry.
The Department noted that a consultancy study on the issue, published last month, had put forward a broad range of policy options to curb greenhouse gas emissions - including an energy, or CO2, tax and the conversion of the Moneypoint power station from coal to natural gas.
It said this study, by British consultants ERM in association with the ESRI and Byrne O Cleirigh, was now the subject of a public consultation process, and the Department was "very keen" to get responses from as many people as possible before the abatement strategy was formulated. The text of the study is available on the Department's website on the Internet at www.environ.ie
