Ireland’s climate finance commitment ‘only half of its fair share’

In response to Taoiseach Micheál Martin committing during Ireland’s national statement today at COP26 to increasing Ireland’s climate finance contributions to at least €225 million by 2025, Conor O’Neill, Christian Aid Ireland’s Policy and Advocacy Advisor, said:

“COP26 will be judged by whether richer and high-polluting countries finally follow through with repaying their moral and ecological debt to countries least responsible for the climate crisis. Taking past emissions and wealth into account, Ireland should be contributing closer to €500 million a year in climate finance, which means this increased commitment, while welcome, is still only half of our fair share.

“There’s been real anger in Glasgow from developing countries on this point. Richer countries have delayed and failed to meet their obligations, despite recognition that the current $100 billion per year commitment must be revised upwards after 2025 to match the needs and scale of the task at hand. Wealthy countries have shown very clearly that they were able to muster up billions to respond to the large-scale challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic within their own countries, a point not lost on developing countries.

“Every year of delay is a year lost for investing in defences that will protect people living on the climate crisis frontline from the worst impacts of extreme weather as well as helping developing countries reduce their own emissions.

“It's essential that Ireland’s climate finance is a new and additional investment and that it isn’t diverted from existing aid budgets, supporting communities struggling with extreme poverty, so that it doesn’t detract from other key areas like education and healthcare. By just dipping into its aid budget, Ireland would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

To read our joint global climate finance report, click here.