Mr. Simon Murtagh:

The Deputy asked about subsidies. There is a distinction between subsidies on consumption and production which I would bring to the attention of the committee and which would be my response to that.

I also want to say something about the wider global justice argument in the context of loss and damage, because we welcome the Deputy's support for that. We released a report yesterday, The Cost of Delay, which is a historical look at loss and damage as an issue and which looks back three decades. The report was issued in conjunction with the Loss and Damage Collaboration, so most people here would have received it. Loss and damage was first asked for in 1991 by small island states at a UN framework convention. In that year, more than 150,000 people died because of extreme weather events. The states in question made a push for it at that stage - 30 years ago - and it was rebuffed. You can look at years of pushes for loss and damage at COP. It was rebuffed again as a funded facility at COP14 in 2008, when, again, over 150,000 people were killed directly by extreme weather events. It was cyclones in that case, in places like Bangladesh and Myanmar. When it comes to this year, we see another push. This year, we come to COP27, following the floods in Pakistan and the Horn of Africa crisis, which is a conflict as well as being climate related above all. Are we going to be rebuffed again? Do we know how many people have died because of extreme weather events this year when we count the Horn of Africa crisis and the floods in Pakistan? The global justice case for this is beyond dispute. We argue that the time for quiet diplomacy on this issue is over. We need to move and publicly state our support for a loss and damage facility based on the principles of global justice, which Deputy Bruton mentioned.