Ms Siobhan Curran:

I will make two additional points. In terms of loss and damage, the critical issue will be to home in on the finance facility. Mr. Murtagh documented the extent of the obstruction over the years. For 30 years, different reasons have been given as to why finance cannot be provided. At this point, even within the EU, more countries concede that there is a gap in loss and damage finance. What they are not agreeing to is a specific, transparent, accountable facility under the UNFCCC, which is what developing countries are calling for. It is important that we home in on that detail.

The finance needs to be unlocked in order that we might have those critical discussions on non-economic loss and damage, erosion of biodiversity and so on. Ireland is doing some work in exploring these issues with the Overseas Development Institute and has facilitated a number of workshops in this regard, which we welcome.

The overwhelming message from COP26 was that trust had been broken. Promises were made about the provision of $100 billion, which is not even enough, but that has not been delivered. It is being delivered primarily through loans rather than through adaptation and grants. There is a feeling that trust keeps being eroded. Trust must be rebuilt at COP27.

The final point I will make relates to a fair share of climate finance. It is important to note that the commitments made by Ireland for €225 million to be delivered by 2025 are welcome, but we must put these in context. That money part of the $100 billion promise, which was supposed to be delivered by 2020. At COP26, there was an acknowledgement by richer countries that this money would be delivered by 2023. What we have is a promise by Ireland to deliver by 2025. It is already late. The message is that there is an urgent need to scale up our finance swiftly. The year 2025 is a late deadline. We must look at our fair share. The work that we have done estimates our fair share to be approximately €500 million, which is much higher than the €225 million target. In that context, a rapid scaling up of our climate finance is crucial.