Mr. Conor O'Neill:

I thank the Deputy for the question. It is a very important point, and I will be brief on account of time. One of the reasons we talk so much about the figures, about the numbers of contributions for things like climate finance, and about the ask for loss and damage funding is because it is supposed to consistent, adequate, and predictable. What we have at the moment is an ad hocsticking plaster system, where there will be a disaster somewhere like Pakistan, as the Deputy mentions, members of the Government and civil society in that country will be on the BBC World Service, and people will mobilise to try to provide some resources depending on what is available and depending on the level of media and public attention. That is not how this should be done. The ask from civil society, from our partners in the global south, and from the vast majority of global south delegates at COP in Egypt in two weeks' time will be for a loss and damage finance facility that will be contributed to on an equity justice basis by this part of the world to ensure that money is there to meet the challenges the Deputy has mentioned and without relying on a media cycle level of attention. That is why the money is important, but what has been committed already in climate finance and what has been called for in terms of loss and damage needs to be stable, adequate and predictable. That is how we get away from this cyclical response.