Mr. Ross Fitzpatrick:

I can add briefly to that. It will be very difficult this year to achieve any progress on fossil fuel phase-out in addition to what we saw last year and that is primarily due to the fact that as this has been billed the finance COP, all of the negotiations and political attention will be on the NCQG. Having said that, it is worth pointing out that the single biggest delegation at COP28, after the UAE and the United States, was the fossil fuel lobby and this has been the case for the last few COPs.

It is important that Ireland should at the very least reject the inclusion of industry lobbyists at this COP and at future COPs. We must lend our support to the need for increased ambition on fossil fuel phase-out. On there being better language achieved in the decision text relating to fossil fuel phase-out, I think the likelihood is low.