Mr. Ross Fitzpatrick:

I thank Deputy Brady. The first thing I will say is that even though a fund was agreed to at the end of COP 27, and I agree it was a monumental win, it is important to bear in mind that this was by no means a given at the start of the COP.

As the members may be aware, there was a massive row the day before the official COP kicked off even to have it on the agenda. We got that. For pretty much the duration of the entire COP there was a long protracted negotiation where one had developed countries on the one side saying the fund would not be agreed to at the end of the COP and to push it back to next year and on the other hand developing countries were arguing the opposite and stating that we needed a political agreement of a fund. It is worth bearing in mind that where we are now is good but the likelihood of this fund operating correctly and the way it should is by no mean a given because there is a strong chance that between now and COP28 there will be cynical attempts to ensure the fund does not get the funding that it needs, is not properly equipped and is not properly resourced. That is why the first two things regarding the transitional committee is to ensure it is adequately equipped and resourced and that progressive countries like Ireland are at least if not a member of the committee are working from the outside to ensure that developed countries take a progressive role.

Ireland can play a role in the Glasgow Dialogue. As members will be aware, the Glasgow Dialogue was set up after COP26 when there was a failure to agree to the loss and damage fund, which was the main ask of civil society in developing countries. One of the aspects of the decision at COP27 regarding the fund was to ensure that the Glasgow Dialogue complements the work of the transitional committee. Dóchas urges Ireland to take a proactive role in the next Glasgow Dialogue, which will take place in June of next year, as the focus of that Glasgow Dialogue meeting will be on operationalising and maximising existing funding, where Ireland can also play a key role.

My final comment on the transitional committee is that a report will be published in advance of COP28 that takes into account all of the meetings of the committee, the next Glasgow Dialogue and ministerial consultations. It is important that in advance of COP28 that the report is as strong as possible and Ireland can play a real role in ensuring that is the case.

There was a question asked about fossil fuels and I agree with what was said. The major win of this COP was the loss and damage fund but we backslided on Glasgow and there was no real progress on fossil fuels. If that continues to be the case at future COPs then loss and damage will only get worse. We know that loss and damage will continually get worse in the years ahead. If we do not make progress on fossil fuels then it does not matter how much money we have for this fund because it will not help countries respond to what is needed. It is important that there are no trade-offs between adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage because they are all connected. During COP27 there were some cynical attempts to play these things against one another. It is important that Ireland ensures that these things are treated as one part of an overarching climate action.