Ms Michelle Murphy:

I thank Senator Higgins for her comments. I agree with the Senator entirely on a couple of points, such as the need for structural change. It cannot all be little individual pieces. It needs to come from every sector as well. One way to support structural change in the long-term, I have mentioned is the eco-system accounting. If we embed that and start to charge companies for the eco-system services provided by our biodiversity, it would certainly have an impact on activity.

With regard to the ODA, we need to be getting to 0.7% GNI* and we certainly have a road to go. I refer to how we report on that and how we link climate finance to that where we should actually be reporting that completely separately so that we have a clear picture of what we are allocating to overseas development assistance and what we are actually allocating to private finance. The sum of €225 million, while welcome, is still substantially less than €400 million. As the Senator said, as one of the two supporting negotiating countries of the SDGs, we should be taking a lead role here. We have a strong tradition of taking a lead role in the ODA. A commitment to get to 0.7% GNI* in the next two to three years would be really important.

Another area when looking at developing countries is the amount of debt they carry and what we can do globally. How can we expect these countries to take on infrastructure projects and invest in mitigation measures and renewables when the level of debt they already carry is crippling? Often, these countries are paying more in servicing that debt than they are investing in their own services and infrastructure. That is an element that we should be progressing at EU level. I really think we should be seeing progress on that.

These countries face challenges in accessing markets because of the measures put in place. There are more protected measures for more developed countries. As Mr. Talbot said, these countries are trying to develop their economies and ask why they are not allowed to develop in the same way as other countries. The debt forgiveness element could really play an important part there.