Mr. Simon Murtagh:

I thank the Chairman. I wanted to come in on some of Deputy O'Callaghan's questions about what is happening at COP26 and what sense of urgency there is among the negotiators. I might add to my colleague Ms Dabi's comments that there is a healthy sense of competition among nations because they are being pushed by the protestors outside and the activists, whom we see as our supporters in Oxfam and the people we work with throughout the world. We mentioned loss and damage in our submission. There is a sense of competition even between Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon, whereby Scotland is trying to move faster than the UK, which has made the most ambitious pledges thus far. On the issue of loss and damage, Ms Sturgeon came out with the first significant pledge of any country to fund loss and damage, which we see as vital as a policy area. It is a way of financing people who have been hit by extreme weather events throughout the world and who have no other recourse to protection other than this fund for loss and damage. That is something we would like the committee to convey to the Irish negotiators. We need to create a funding mechanism for loss and damage.

The other point we made, in the context of hard policy goals, relates to the pledge of $100 billion in climate finance. It is, in a way, an emblematic goal but it has existed for 11 or 12 years and we are still not getting there. It is our understanding that the US is the main stumbling block and in particular the Houses of Congress, as we mentioned. We reiterate Ireland is the great broker of deals internationally, so if there is anything our members as negotiators or brokers can do to convey that to the appropriate committee on Capitol Hill, or in general to convey that sense of urgency to our American friends, that would be good.

That is how we read it here among Oxfam and the Irish delegation at COP26.