Roche criticised for playing down rise in emissions
Environment Minister Dick Roche is coming under fire today over his reaction to an EPA report highlighting a rise in Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions last year.
Mr Roche has welcomed the report and has played down the 0.5% increase in emissions, saying it was significantly lower than the growth in the economy in 2004.
However, Oisin Coghlan, the director of the Friends of the Earth in Ireland, said this was not a sign of progress.
"The only other person in the world who I know of who welcomes decoupling as a sign of real progress is George Bush, who says we're going to grow and grow and grow, but it'll be less carbon-intense," he said.
"We have to actually do something more fundamental than that. We have to review how we live, how we work, even how we think about the economy in order to begin to reduce emissions."
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent has accused Mr Roche of trying to put a positive spin on a very worrying development.
"This report from the EPA is very, very serious for Ireland regardless of the spin which the Minister for the Environment puts on it," he said.
"The overall picture is that Ireland is racing ahead of other countries in terms of adding to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. This report demonstrates just how badly the Government is doing."
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