Ms Karol Balfe:

I thank the Chair, Deputies and Senators for the opportunity to address the committee. I am the CEO of Action Aid Ireland. I will briefly highlight some of the root causes and structural issues the world needs to address, and the role Ireland could play in this, specifically as regards the debt crisis, tax justice, climate financing and private finance flows. We have seen and heard from the other panellists the commendable role Ireland plays with its overseas development programme, and how deeply valued this is. However, the simple fact is that this cannot work in isolation and we need to address some of the root causes of poverty and injustice. As we have also heard, this is compounded by the climate crisis where 75% of the global crisis will be borne by countries of the global south, despite the poorest half of the world's population causing just 10% of carbon dioxide emissions. This is clearly an issue of climate injustice. As Mr. O'Connell highlighted, these inequalities are deeply gendered and greatly impact women's rights around the world. In 2022, nearly one in four women globally experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, 75% of women's employment in the global south is informal and unprotected and 380 million women and girls are currently living in extreme poverty. Women and children are 14 times more likely to die from climate disaster than men and gender-based violence is a feature of all of these crises.

On debt, the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis are also facing a debt crisis. The need to service external debt in foreign currency has become a major accelerator of the climate crisis. It is a vicious cycle that traps these countries in poverty. It is profoundly contradictory that two thirds of climate finance arrives in the form of loans that exacerbate this debt further and the real value of these loans is often overstated. Action Aid analysis found that 93% of countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis are in debt crisis or at significant risk of debt distress. Again, women and girls end up being triply disadvantaged because governments cut public services to service foreign debt, so women lose access to these public services, lose jobs in these public services and pick up the burden of unpaid care when public services are not available.

I turn to tax justice. For more than 60 years, global tax reform has been hampered by global tax rules that are set and enforced by the club of rich nations, namely, the OECD. This has helped to create a world where resources continue to be plundered from the global south through aggressive tax avoidance and illicit financial flows. That amounts to more than $100 billion per year from Africa. Ireland plays a role in this, and has recently been criticised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UN Committee of Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which noted that Ireland's financial secrecy legislation and permissive corporate tax rules hinder the ability of the state party, as well other states, to meet their obligation to realise these human rights.

One thing that is clear is there are alternatives. We are facing multiple crises and extremely entrenched structural issues, but there are ways to get out of this. Oxfam has demonstrated that wealth taxes of just 5% on the world's multimillionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion per year. Windfall taxes on excess profits of the biggest fossil fuel companies could yield hundreds of billions. Just taxing the five biggest tech companies could raise $32 billion, and there is momentum at the global level for a new UN tax body that would oversee and overhaul rules on tax and lead to greater fairness for the global south. There is also the ability for countries to have national action on tax reform.

The IMF estimated that most low-and middle-income countries could increase their tax to GDP ratios by five percentage points by 2030, allowing them to spend more on the climate crisis and public services. On specific things Ireland could do, as recommended by the UN international committee on economic and social cultural rights we could conduct a new, independent and comprehensive spillover analysis, assessing the impact of Ireland’s tax policies on the economies of developing countries, support global momentum for the tax convention, support debt cancellation and allow for greater trade flexibility to allow developing countries to pursue their paths to food security and development.

With regard to climate injustice and the climate crisis, this year in Azerbaijan, the UN COP29 will focus on agreeing a new post-2025 climate financing goal to allow climate vulnerable developing countries to respond to climate impacts and transition to a sustainable future. This is absolutely essential if there is a realistic chance of averting catastrophic climate chaos. Climate vulnerable countries urgently need rich, polluting countries to provide the climate financing necessary. At the moment, the goal of $100 billion per year has not been met and is deemed to be inadequate. It is likely that the new climate finance goal will be in the trillions of dollars every year.

In relation to what Ireland can do for this, we are already making international climate financing commitments of €120 million in 2022. This is crucially important, but it falls far short of the Government's own target of reaching €225 million by 2025 and falls much shorter than the fair share as estimated by Christian Aid and Trócaire of €500 million. We believe that Ireland must increase its annual climate financing contributions to €500 million per annum, bearing in mind when the new goal is set this will be modest. Only 21% of climate financing is channelled to civil society organisations. We urge that the Government increases this funding, particularly to women centred organisations and communities. It is also essential that Ireland supports the new loss and damage fund. Ireland has played a pivotal role in this but now we must follow up with significant new and innovative sources of finance.

With regard to private finance flows, it is a fact that most of the world's finance is actually going to the causes of the climate crisis rather than the solutions. Fossil fuels are by far the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for 75% of global greenhouse emissions. Industrial agriculture is the second biggest contributor, not the type of agriculture that Mr. O'Connell has been talking about. The financing for fossil fuels and industrial agriculture dwarfs that for renewable energy and those sustainable farming methods for agroecology. ActionAid research shows that since the Paris agreement, €3.2 trillion has been spent on the fossil fuel industry from banks in the global north to the global south. Ireland plays a role in this as €6.2 billion of bonds and shares attributable to fossil fuels and agribusiness flow through Ireland to the global south. The top six investment companies are all oil and gas.

To conclude, we really commend the role that Ireland has played with its very progressive human rights development policy, but we need to ensure that we are delivering a wider and fairer financial system. Ireland needs to play a progressive and positive role in reforming global systems around debt, tax and trade to ensure we can make further inroads to achieving the sustainable goals.