EUROPEAN COMMISSION president José Manuel Barroso yesterday said Ireland would not be able to alter its climate change targets because it can afford the cost of cutting C02 emissions.
He also called on EU leaders to back the commission's landmark climate change package at a summit in Brussels, describing it as a key "test of their credibility".
"Our proposal is equitable, fair and technically sound - we will not change it," said Mr Barroso, when asked whether he would consider revising the core methodology used to set Ireland's target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.
The commission handed Ireland the toughest target in Europe for cutting emissions under a burden-sharing agreement drawn up in January based on relative wealth. Meeting the target is likely to cost the economy up to €1 billion per year by 2020.
The Government has raised concerns about the way the target was apportioned by Brussels.
But at a pre-summit press conference Mr Barroso ruled out changing the commission methodology, which is based principally on a country's gross domestic product (GDP).
"We believe that GDP per capita is the best way of representing fairness in terms of EU," said Mr Barroso.
"Ireland has benefited so much from structural aid from the EU because it was much lower than the average and now it is higher than the average."
Mr Barroso said it was obvious that a poor country has to make more effort to reach the goals than a rich country.
He also warned that leaders who performed signalled now that they were not willing to meet the targets would have a "level of credibility close to zero".
The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has lobbied the commission about Ireland's climate targets, arguing that GDP per capita does not accurately reflect the Irish economy because of the high level of profits repatriated by multinational companies.
Last night he also expressed concern to other EU leaders about elements of the climate change package, particularly fears that energy intensive industries, like cement, may relocate outside the EU.
EU leaders are expected to broadly back the commission's climate plan at the summit today, although they are likely to seek modest changes to protect European industry.