Our real challenge now is, in effect, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 20 percent in the next ten years. We intend to do this in a manner that protects our economy, that is equitable, and that will place a premium on efficiency and on technical innovation. Participation in international emissions' trading, as a supplement to and not a substitute for domestic action. Emissions trading works on the principle of participants accepting binding limits for their emissions of greenhouse gases, then being allocated emissions permits, which correspond, to these targets. Participants buy or sell the permits to allow them to cover their actual level of emissions.
Critics claim that emissions trading is simply trading the right to pollute.
Industry argues that if emissions trading helps achieve lower output of greenhouse gases, then the ends justify the means. A commitment to cease coal firing at Moneypoint power station by 2008. Closure or conversion of the Moneypoint plant in County Clare would make the largest single contribution to reducing Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, said the government. A substantial reduction in methane emissions from agriculture to be achieved by 2010, equivalent to a reduction of 10 percent in livestock numbers. Agriculture is still the largest single source of greenhouse gases in Ireland, closely followed by energy and transport.