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 Public warned over European energy crisis 11/8/2006 - 1:02:19 PM The Irish public must take climate change seriously if the country is to survive a potential European energy crisis, a top diplomat warned today. EU Ambassador to the US John Bruton told the Seanad Irish people need to urgently realise the scale of the environmental problem and make sacrifices. Recent EU predictions show Ireland is on course to massively exceed its greenhouse gas limits under the Kyoto Protocol and faces hundreds of millions of euro in penalties. “The biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world are the US (21%), followed by China (15%) and Europe (14%). Europe is still far from perfect,” the former taoiseach said. “Some individual European countries have already greatly exceeded their Kyoto emission targets, including one I will not name.” He continued: “At the end of the day, we will only manage to cut the rate of increase in greenhouse gases if public opinion recognises that the problem is both serious and urgent and is willing to make sacrifices to overcome it.” Ireland must also boost its productivity to counter the effects of a potential US slowdown, Mr Bruton cautioned. The key challenge is to spread the growth in the foreign-owned sector to the rest of the economy, including private services, construction, Government services and distribution. “This is more easily said than done, but one way to stimulate productivity growth throughout the economy is to ensure that we use the European Single Market properly to tackle restrictive practices and barriers to competition,” said Mr Bruton. Two prime ingredients of Ireland’s economic success were EU membership and American investment, he stressed. |
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