Ms Siobhan Curran:

I thank Deputy Stanton. The issue around the 2% and accountability is about the choices states are making on how they are directing the money rather than it not necessarily being delivered appropriately when it is delivered. The overwhelming thrust of climate finance has been to mitigation rather than adaptation. As I said, Ireland is different in this. That is why we actually do call a lot on Ireland to be a leader, which we did at COP 27. Ireland has been part of the climate adaptation champions group as well.

We are concerned that the funds are not designed in a way that is so bureaucratic they will not be accessible for people who most need access to them such as small holder farmers and women. It is thinking about how they are designed. That does link to gender. We had a report on women taking the lead, which looked at the gendered climate impacts. Even in times of climate emergencies, women were more vulnerable. They actually had a higher death rate in climate emergencies. There are all sorts of gendered impacts around displacement and so on. Having a gendered approach is crucial, as is having an intersectional approach that brings in racism. It was good to see the special rapporteur on racism issue a report before the Conference of the Parties in which she talked about the impact of colonialism and how that has shaped the climate emergency we are in. Us joining all those dots together is very important. There have been many developments within the human rights sphere with a new rapporteur on human rights and climate change and a new resolution on the right to a healthy environment. That should underpin our work going forward.