LAST UPDATE | 11 Nov 2022
€5 MILLION OF Ireland’s international climate finance has been allocated to specific funds to support countries suffering the most from climate change.
Ireland will provide €1 million to the Special Climate Change Fund and €2 million to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), to support adaptation activities in small island developing states and the world’s most vulnerable countries, a minister has announced today.
Another €2 million is set to go to the African Development Bank for activities supporting adaptation in African countries.
Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid Colm Brophy issued the announcement today from COP27 in the coastal Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh, a climate conference where negotiators have been tasked with hammering out new climate commitments.
A crucial priority for campaigners and many countries is the issue of providing supports to alleviate losses and damages experienced by vulnerable countries because of the climate crisis – though resistance from some delegations meant even getting the item on the agenda was a battle.
Ahead of his visit, Minister Brophy said that “this is rightly being referred to as Africa’s COP because the problems facing the Horn of Africa today are a wake-up call to us all”.
“The drought in the Horn of Africa is climate change in action,” he said.
“I visited Kenya recently and saw first-hand how climate change is condemning millions of people to suffering and hunger.
It would be wholly unacceptable for governments around the world to descend on COP and not take concrete and practical action to alleviate the tragedy that is being played out in the Horn of Africa and also in places like Pakistan that have experienced devastating flooding this year.
“We can’t afford a talking shop. The people I met in Kenya deserve more. They deserve climate change finally being given the political attention it so urgently needs.”
Additionally, multi-annual funding of €14 million over three years is to be given to the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research, which works to advance innovation in food systems, including in climate resilience.
The LDCF, which Ireland has provided €13 million to since 2014, helps recipient countries to reduce climate change vulnerability in priority sectors and ecosystems, while the Special Climate Change Fund helps developing countries to access technical assistance and private sector support.
The African Development Bank is a financial institution that was established to contribute to economic development and social progress in African countries.
Speaking to reporters today at COP27, Brophy said that his perspective on the conference has been “overwhelmingly influenced” by his visit to the Horn of Africa and the devastation that he witnessed.
He raised concerns about the effectiveness of countries in delivering on climate promises.
“At the very top level, there still seems to be a lack of willingness to implement. So we’re on the verge of having a situation where there’s more promises and good intentions made in the two weeks of COP than there are during the first two weeks of January and they’re forgotten just as quick,” he said.
“The spirit of Paris is, as far as I’m concerned, nearly dead and buried.”
During his trip, Minister Brophy is due to join former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and climate activists from least-developed countries tomorrow for a roundtable discussion hosted by the International Federation of the Red Cross.
Robinson, who has been vocal about campaigning for climate action, is the chair of The Elders, a human rights group made up of leaders that was founded by Nelson Mandela.
Also on his agenda are meetings with representatives from with Somalia and Senegal, as well as attending a meeting on food systems.
He was also set to meet with the Global Partnership for Education, an organisation that delivers funding for education in developing countries.
Tomorrow, on top of the roundtable with Mary Robinson and activists, he has a bilateral meeting scheduled with Malawi and a meeting with the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
He is due to attend an event on climate and security and another hosted by the Champions Group on Adaptation Finance, which Ireland is a founding member of.
His senior minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, made a one-day visit to the conference on Wednesday, where he met with leaders from Somalia and the Cook Islands.
After his meetings, Coveney told Irish media that “Somalia is an interesting case study in just how dramatic the impact of climate change can be on populations”.
“We are seeing children starve to death in Somalia because of the fifth drought season in a row, crops failing and some rural communities not being able to feed themselves,” the minister said.
“That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about the moral obligation to respond to the climate challenge. Because of the change in weather patterns in certain parts of the world, people are dying.”
Earlier in the week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin attended the World Leaders Summit at COP27, where he announced €10 million for the Global Shield initiative, a finance-protection programme targeted at countries under threat from the climate crisis.
However, the move was criticised by activists because the funding relates to financial institutions like insurance rather than directly targeting the impacts of the climate crisis.
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