The Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, Colm Brophy, T.D., has today launched Ireland’s Climate and Environmental Finance Report 2019.
Speaking at the online launch today, Minister Brophy said:
“We are stepping up. We have committed to at least double the percentage of Official Development Assistance spent on climate finance by 2030.
“Climate change is a threat to our prosperity, our security, and even our survival. Every summer storm and flood is a reminder of this to us. However, there are billions of people more vulnerable than us around the world that need no reminder – the African farmer worrying about her next harvest or the Pacific Islander wondering will the sea swamp their home.
“This is why our climate finance is aimed at strengthening resilience for people like the African farmer or Pacific Islander. And we are linking these efforts to our climate diplomacy at the UN, including on the Security Council, and within the EU.
“The report we are launching today is the product of cross-departmental work. This work within the Department of Foreign Affairs is now being led by the newly established Climate Unit. This new Unit is charged with delivering on Ireland’s climate commitments, and will be leading efforts to increase our ambition in this area.”
The Climate and Environmental Finance Report shows that Ireland spent over €93 million on International Climate Action in 2019. This 17% increase from 2018 figures is a signal of Ireland’s policy commitment to international objectives that seek to address climate change, protect biodiversity and combat desertification.
The 2019 Climate and Environmental Finance Report provides spending figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. 99% of financing in 2019 supported climate adaptation measures, strengthening the resilience of the most vulnerable in the face of climate change.
ENDS
Press Office
8 March 2021
Notes to Editors:
- The Government has placed climate action among the four major policy priorities in its international development policy ‘A Better World’. In the policy the Government commits to scale up our funding on climate action and explore innovative approaches to climate finance, risk insurance and climate adaptation.
- Of the €93,684,608 provided in climate finance in 2019, €71,327,517 came from the Department of Foreign Affairs, €4,414,454 from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, €10,885,380 by the Department of Finance, and €7,057,257 by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
- The United Nations Rio Conventions – UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification – require donor countries such as Ireland to report, on an annual basis, the financial support that is provided to developing nations for the purpose of achieving the objectives of the Rio Conventions.
- The Paris Agreement on Climate Change requires developed countries to provide USD$100 billion per year in climate finance up to 2025, to support developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
- In 2015 Ireland pledged to provide €175 million in public funding for climate finance measures in developing countries over 2016-20. Ireland achieved this goal in 2018 and has now committed to double the proportion of Overseas Development Assistance that is climate finance by 2030.
