We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IRELAND MAY HAVE to spend up to €300m over the next eight years to fulfill its obligations under an EU climate law because the country’s policies and plans are not strong enough to help it achieve the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The government will have to buy millions of so-called “carbon credits” to offset each tonne of CO2 by which it exceeds its targets, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned.
Under a 2009 EU law, member states agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from sectors including agriculture, transport, buildings and waste by 10 per cent on 2005 levels over the period 2013-2020. It is up to national governments to implement policies and measures to limit emissions from these sectors.
Richer countries, measured in terms of GDP per capita, took on higher targets and Ireland is at the top of the table with an obligation to cut its emissions by 20 per cent over the period. Just two other countries, Denmark and Luxembourg, have a 20 per cent obligation.
The targets were proposed by the European Commission in January 2008 and agreed by EU ministers in December that year, a few months after Ireland entered recession.
Not on track
Six countries including Ireland are not on track to make the required emissions reductions. The six will miss their targets even if all their existing and planned carbon mitigation policies are fully implemented, the European Environment Agency warned in October 2012.
In a report published last month, the EPA confirmed that Ireland will miss its targets within five years. Buying carbon credits to cover the resulting shortfall will cost anywhere between €50m and €300m, depending on what further steps the country takes to cut its emissions in the relevant sectors. The cost of compliance may be even greater after 2020, the agency warned.
Environment minister Phil Hogan published a draft climate bill last week, setting out some ways that the country may go about cutting its emissions. But the absence of any emissions targets from the bill was criticised by environmental groups including Friends of the Earth and An Taisce.
EU countries have not yet agreed overall decarbonisation targets for beyond 2020 but the European Commission has proposed cutting emissions by 80 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050. The UK has already signed an 80 per cent target into law.
Green groups had hoped to see such a target in the Irish bill too, arguing that it would act as an incentive to the current and to future governments to take action on reducing emissions. In its report, the EPA also recommended that Ireland adopt long term targets, arguing that these would provide businesses with the certainty to make low-carbon investments.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
“Big Names”. …. Big Names in their own minds!!!!
Does 2FM train them all to speak with the same voice / accent. It’s like nails on a blackboard.
Radio nova all the way.
@Brian Dunne: 100%
@Brian Dunne: Same playlist since it launched when it asked Metro Newspaper readers to list their favourite rock songs. They have been sticking to that rigidly. You may argue that goes for all the stations, but they inject fresh new songs every week. Radio Nova play the same 2 or 3 songs from about 10 artists
@Jack Burton: I have to agree unfortunately!
@Jack Burton: but that’s obviously what many people like…their ratings are increasing
@Brian Dunne: They do some Powerballads throwback that really hits the spot, they’re not afraid of bringing in the cheese.
@Jack Burton: I love Radio Nova but yes I’ve noticed all Summer it’s the same songs every few days. So many other great 80’s hits, plenty of B-sides not sure why they don’t branch out their playlists more.
There was no collapse in listenership when Tubridy left his radio slot either, all evidence points to high earners at RTE having little or no impact on ratings so salaries are entirely unjustified.
Of course our government doesn’t care and writes them blank cheques regardless.
Big names lol they were so big they were snapped up immediately id say.
Wouldn’t believe a word of it 2fm pure mule
@Brendan Murphy: total muck
@Brendan Murphy: man doesn’t like radio station so believes that nobody else can possibly like it, to the extent that he believes that independent listenership figures are bogus
Plenty of stations much better than that tripe
@Ian Cryan: Spot on .
It’s because those mid-morning until afternoon presenters on Today FM are insufferable….
@Noel Leech: you mean cash machine fm?
@Brian Dunne: oh yeah that’s the one, good man
I’ll stick with Radio Nova. PJ and Jim in the morning and Pat Courtenay for the drive home keep me sane in the traffic.
@Ger Whelan: My only problem with Nova is that they play the same 2 or 3 songs from each artist.
Don’t belive this at all. Pure fiction. Maybe an audit or review of methodology of data collection.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Can we have an audit or review on the data that leads you to call this fiction??
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: What a silly statement.
2FM is station of wannabes with notions. Full stop.
Just goes to show, clinging onto talent that once worked well or seemed good isn’t necessarily the only option. There’s always a replacement, there’s always a roll of the dice, it may even be from people tuning in to see what the new shows are like, a bounce so to speak.
Just AI presenting now
Who paid for this survey?….enough said!
Not the station it was years ago…
@Mark Gannon: Ah Larry and the Just a minute Quiz , Good times .
Timewarp Ireland on the interweb , no ads , no DJs , music heaven.
‘In spite of stars leaving’ . Should that not be ‘because of stars leaving’?
Lefty station
@Fintan Pox: right fool
@Joe Kelly: change the f to a t in fool!!
According to the far right on venture capitalist Elon Musks X platform, these figures are inflated by AI. lol
The question is who got greased to say RTE 2Fm has seen an increase in listenership figures
Have a spotify playlist for work over 110 hours long.Will never go back to the radio.2 songs then cringey talk by usually 2 to 4 eejits pretending to be having the craic,ads,news,ads,more talk,maybe a song,news,ads,news,ads,ads,ads,ads.
It’s a joke.One Of those things that only reveals itself to be so bad when you step away from it
Honestly who needs the same news spoken word for word every hour TEN times a day.Never again.
How do they know even if we listen @ all have they a bug in our homes or what coz nobody ever came knocking on my door or rang me up just another white wash poll that means nothing when it’s certainly non transparent
This proves that “Talent” is a liability.
Callan gained more than when Turdity was presenting! I thought he was “”De Talent!??” More proof the Management Haven’t a Clue! LOL!!!
For a national station, 2FM’s listenership is so poor to start with, anything would be an improvement.
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music they constantly play. The Smiths
So it was just the people that left the listeners couldn’t stand then!
Big echoes still rubbish
Mistake in headline. Should be “because of ” instead of “despite”!
JLNR is total nonsense. Not worth the paper it’s written on.
Why does the journal.ie allow some of the conspiracy posts to remain. We complain when Twitter and Instagram don’t take down obvious spam. Many of the postings on this topic with their anti MSM are straight out of the extreme right playbook.
What wavelength is it on.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say