Ireland among EU states to exceed carbon dioxide production

EU figures have revealed that Ireland has emerged among a small number of European states to exceed quotas for producing harmful carbon dioxide emissions.

The figures were released by the European Commission on Monday, May 15th. They are the results of the first year of emissions monitoring and trading.
Austria, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and the UK were the countries which breached their annual allowance for producing carbon dioxide gases.

A commission spokeswoman in Brussels stated that while there were problems, the first year of results would form a good basis on which to set member states Kyoto targets.
She said that Ireland had exceeded its annual average quota of 19,238,190 tonnes of carbon dioxide and had produced 22,397,678 tonnes. She stated that there would be an incentive to cut emissions in Ireland but that it was less likely in other countries.

"If a state has - and I am making these figures up for example - a 10,000 tonnes production of carbon dioxide, then we should given them probably an allowance of 8,000 tonnes and they will strive to reduce their emissions rather than pay a fine. This is the way it should be working," she said.
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Sweden were among the states which produced less carbon dioxide than their quotas.