Mr. Ross Fitzpatrick:

Probably the major obstacle is the debate around the contributor base question. Currently under Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, developed countries have responsibilities and obligations to provide climate finance. Developed countries, including Ireland, are essentially arguing that the global landscape has changed significantly since 1992, when the developed country list under the UNFCCC was agreed, and should be expanded to include economies that have grown and are big fossil fuel producers. In our view, it is still very much the case that countries in the global north are largely responsible for the extraction of fossil fuels in the global south, and the burning of those fossil fuels, and that they are responsible for causing the crisis and therefore still bear the major responsibilities. Many NGOs in the global south see this as a technique to distract from the fact that there are responsibilities that have to be met and have been unfulfilled for decades. Whether or not China or other countries provide climate finance, and in many cases they already do, it does not change the fact that we have obligations which we have not met. We have to meet those obligations.

Ireland should not get drawn into this long tedious debate about whether and which countries should pay into this new goal. We have obligations and we have to pay them first and foremost.