Agency warns of drought threat in the south-east and need to control emissions

IRELAND: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned of droughts in the south-east of Ireland in the next few decades…

IRELAND: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned of droughts in the south-east of Ireland in the next few decades due to global warming.

The agency has also warned that controls on aviation and farming emissions may need to be introduced in Ireland and Europe to tackle greenhouse-gas emissions, the main cause of the phenomenon.

These controls could place significant additional costs on Irish farmers, while airline passengers would face dearer tickets.

With the coming into force of the Kyoto protocol today, senior officials from the agency said the agreement covered the period to 2012, but new measures would be needed to tackle global warming after that date.

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The agreement, which has been signed by all developed countries with the exception of the US and Australia, commits governments to meeting various individual targets for greenhouse-gas emissions.

Ireland is required to meet a target of 60 million tonnes by 2008, although current levels are at 67 million tonnes.

An emissions trading system for industry is now in place, requiring all major firms to keep carbon-dioxide emissions at a certain level, or to buy capacity from firms or countries that have reduced their emissions.

Yesterday Dr Ken Macken of the EPA said future measures that needed to be considered included trading systems for the aviation and farming sectors.

The farming sector accounts for at least a quarter of Ireland's greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly in the form of methane emissions from cattle.

Dr Mary Kelly, director general of the EPA, said Ireland would also have to develop new capabilities to minimise the impact of climate change.

"The physical threats posed by sea-level rise and extreme weather events, such as storms, flooding and droughts, will require improved predictive capacity and the climate-proofing of future development plans and programme," she said.

According to the agency, its research indicates that Ireland is already experiencing milder warmer weather in most parts and wetter weather in northern and western areas because of global warming, with temperatures having risen by nearly a degree in the last century.

It has warned of much more dramatic climate change in the next four decades, and has predicted that rainfall could drop by 40 per cent in the south-east during the summer.

Rainfall will also increase by 10 per cent during winter months, with average temperatures rising by two degrees in summer months by 2050.