THE MINISTER FOR Climate has earmarked €18 million for specific climate funds to support countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis.

Minister Eamon Ryan is in Egypt this week for COP27, a major climate conference where negotiators are deliberating on new international climate commitments.

The conference is entering its second week in the coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh and faces pressure from experts to deliver a significant promise from developed, high-emitting countries to support vulnerable countries experiencing losses and damages due to the climate crisis.

Ireland has pledged to increase its international climate finance to €225 million by 2025, which will include the €18 million outlined by Minister Ryan today.

However, the key focus for campaigners is the establishment of an international finance facility dedicated to funding loss and damage supports, rather than relatively small finance allocations on a country by country basis.

Such a facility was proposed last year at COP26 in Glasgow but was not backed by the EU or the US. 

Developed countries must also cut their greenhouse gas emissions to curtail the growing destruction hitting vulnerable, low-emitting countries the hardest.

The funding confirmed by Minister Ryan this morning includes €5 million of the €10 million for the Global Shield announced by the Taoiseach.

Three-fifths of the total amount is €11 million for the Global Environment Fund, an asset management fund investing in clean energy. It also includes €1 million for the Special Climate Change Fund to support adaptation action in small island developing states and €1 million for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. 

Last week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin attended the COP27 World Leaders Summit, where he announced €10 million for the Global Shield initiative, a finance-protection programme targeted at countries under threat from the climate crisis.

However, activists criticised the move because the funding relates to financial institutions like insurance rather than directly targeting the impacts of the climate crisis.

Nils Mollema, Climate Justice Policy Advisor at Action Aid, explained that the Global Shield “is an initiative by the German government with the G7, the biggest economies of the world, together with a relatively small group of climate-vulnerable countries”.

“The outcome that has come out of it is mostly an insurance structure in which a whole different heap of financial sources get put together into an insurance system for a handful of those countries,” he said.

“We’re happy to see that Ireland is recognising the need for loss and damage but we’re quite disappointed that the donation is going to end up at the Global Shield. It’s our conviction that insurance, especially when it’s Northern subsidies going to Northern insurance companies, is unlikely to reach those most vulnerable.”

Related Reads

Hundreds of climate campaigners stage protest at COP27 summit

Instead, there should be a “facility that is built and structured in such a way that it is easy to access, that it is quick to access and doesn’t add an extra burden on top of people when they’re already suffering”, he said.

In a statement today, Minister Ryan said that loss and damage is a priority for Ireland at this COP and that “we are committed to supporting the most vulnerable who continue to be the most exposed to climate change”.

“Urgent action is required to protect our planet and our people from further climate-induced devastation,” he said.

“This means staying true to the science, delivering immediate and rapid reductions in emissions through an accelerated clean energy transition, breaking our dependence on fossil fuels as well as scaling up of climate finance, including for loss and damage in ways that meet the needs of the furthest behind first.”

He said that the new Climate Action Plan will be published in the coming weeks and “will set out how we will achieve reductions across key sectors to ensure that we deliver on our commitments under the Paris Agreement”.

The minister is due to a Global Shield meeting later today and a session of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, a small coalition of countries trying to phase out oil and gas production of which Ireland is a member.