Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That is important for enterprise and also for the finance community. If we look down the road just a little, AIB has stated that it is going green. Its neighbour, Barclays Bank, was cited recently by Mr. Bill McKibben, a famous climate campaigner, as one of the top ten worst banks and financial institutions for lending to the fossil fuel sector. That sector will increasingly be at risk as those assets risk becoming stranded assets. It was also interesting recently that a survey showed Dublin at the bottom of the table in the context of the green Irish Financial Services Centre, IFSC, and being ahead of the curve in low-carbon financing and lending. That survey found London and Amsterdam as the European bourses seeking to promote this idea the most.

The advantage of initiating the TFCD is that it would bring other expertise or pressure to bear on the funds, treasury management and derivatives sector of the financial services and lending industry in Ireland to ensure that they report their financial and risk exposure if they are still lending and-or trading in high-carbon assets. The IFSC is important to Dublin. Some 30,000 people work there and it needs to be at the top of the league in the context of agenda rather than playing catch-up or being Paddy last which I fear is the case now.

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