An Irish coalition of environmentalists and humanitarians have criticised the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern's, Earth Summit speech for not specifying how Ireland is going to meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol.
Ireland's greenhouse emissions are currently twice the target, which allows for a 13 per cent increase on 1990 emissions by 2012.
Today, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Earth Summit that Ireland was "gearing up to meet our Kyoto commitment".
Mr Pat Finnegan, an environmentalist with the Earth Summit Ireland Coalition, told ireland.com: It's easy to say you are gearing up when official figures state that Ireland is currently producing 26 per cent more greenhouse emissions than in 1990. When are we going to see real action on emissions".
However, the Taoiseach was praised for giving an "absolute commitment" to raising Ireland's overseas development aid (ODA) to 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2007.
Mr Oisín Coghlan, policy officer with Christian Aid Ireland, welcomed the Taoiseach's "absolute commitment" but said: "We will be keeping a close eye on the Government and we want to know how they are going to meet the UN's 2007 target," he told ireland.com.
While Mr Ahern told the summit that Ireland had increased its aid budget by €100 million he did not mention the recent reduction of €32 million for which the Government had received much criticism from the opposition.
The Government had budgeted €425 million for ODA this year or 0.41 per cent of GNP. The figure has since been revised by the Department of Foreign Affairs to €414 million while other estimates put the total spend at €385 million, some €40 million less than the Government budgeted for, but still an increase on last years figure of €320 million.