20th July 2001

PRESS RELEASE

GREEN PARTY CALLS FOR DEMPSEY TO RESIGN AS IRISH GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS UP BY 10%

The Green Party has called for the Minister for the Environment Noel Dempsey to resign as figures indicate that Irish greenhouse gas emissions have risen by over 10% in the last year.

As the Climate Change talks continue in Bonn without a commitment from the United States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, it appears that Ireland is rapidly increasing its own contribution to Climate Change. 

“The National Development Plan is spending over eight billion pounds on transport”, stated Ciarán Cuffe of the Green Party today, “and 75% of this money is being spend on roads. This will massively increase Ireland’s contribution to Climate Change. Minister Dempsey has failed to take Climate Change seriously. The National Climate Change Abatement Strategy is a load of hot air without any clear commitments to budhets or a timetable for a reduction in emissions.  We are therefore calling for Dempsey to resign. In the eight months since the Climate Change talks stalled in Bonn, our emissions have soared by over 7%. It is time someone shouted stop.”

“We need an Environment Minister who is prepared to invest in public transport; in alternative energy;  and in a national energy conservation programme. Dempsey with his mantra of roads, roads and more roads, and public transport only receiving the crumbs of the transport cake is simply making matters worse.”

ENDS

For further information contact:

Ciarán Cuffe

087 265 2075  or  618 3082

Stephen Rawson, Press Officer         

087 235 7551 or  618 4088