Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Everything is done to minimise the risk and reduce the probabilities. With regard to climate finance, the Senator is right that the $100 billion pledge goes back over ten years to the COP. I hope it will be possible to get the developed world and Annex I countries to make the contribution and build trust. We will do everything we can to support that.

There was a World Resources Institute assessment of climate finance in recent months. It demonstrates there is a huge range. Some countries provide huge climate finance, but it is through loan facilities. We are not at the highest end but we are one of the highest in terms of, typically, grant funding. Like a lot of the Irish aid programme, it is high quality and not connected to trade or conditional. We have a good reputation, to my mind, in terms of how we provide such funding. Particularly in the climate finance area, there is a recognition in the Department of Foreign Affairs, my Department and the State in general that adaptation financing is key. That is one of the reasons we have been involved as champions of climate finance for adaptation. It is an unusual budget item in that it tends to be somewhat retrospective. You only know at the end of the year what has been spent and how much of overseas development assistance, ODA, projects can and should be defined as climate finance.

We are at roughly €100 million in respect of our climate finance contribution this year and the programme for Government commits to a doubling by 2030, if I recall correctly, in our percentage of ODA directed towards climate finance. It is not just the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, my Department and the Department of Finance contribute to the figure. The Department of Foreign Affairs budget is about €70 million per year but we are committed to increasing that as part of an international effort to build confidence and a recognition that investment in adaptation and resilience, particularly for small farming in Africa and elsewhere, is an area where we want to try to work best.