Ireland's annual emissions of greenhouse gases in 2003 were down for a second consecutive year, according to provisional figures released today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The reduction from 68.88 million tonnes of CO2 in 2002 to 66.6 million tonnes in 2003 is a decrease of 2.28 million tonnes or 3.3%.
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Cullen
The fall in emissions in the last two years reverses a trend of steady increases since the early 1990s.
Commenting on the figures today, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Cullen, said: "I am happy to see that the provisional figures for greenhouse gas emissions in 2003 show that these have fallen for the second year in a row."
The latest figures show that in 2003, Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions were around 24.7% above the 1990 level. Ireland is committed under the Kyoto Protocol to a limit of 13% above this 1990 level by 2012.
While the trend is now downwards, achieving the Kyoto target will require huge efforts from all sectors.
Mr Cullen added: "Ireland still faces significant challenges in meeting this target and policies and measures will need to be implemented as current and projected economic growth act to increase emissions across the economy into the future"
The EPA say the reduction in emissions over the last two years is primarily due to a switch from coal, peat and oil to less carbon-intensive natural gas, especially in the power generation sector.
This fuel switching reflects the new entrants in the electricity market that use natural gas fired combined cycle gas turbines.
Other significant reductions arose from the closure of the IFI plants.
The breakdown of figures for 2003 shows that agriculture remained the single largest contributor of greenhouse gases, followed by energy and transport. These three sectors together account for more than 70% of the total.