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

I expect it to be approved, and I very much welcome it. Politics always involves compromise, but it is a significant advance which Ireland was very centrally involved in last year at Sharm el-Sheikh in the context of agreeing the principle of a fund and then being on the transitional committee to deliver it. The World Bank is an appropriate vehicle - I said as much at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September - because we need to deliver this quickly. There are immediate needs. The extent of funding has to be best matched by a mosaic of different funding solutions to it, as was set out at Sharm el-Sheikh last year. It cannot be only Exchequer funding because that will not provide the scale of funding that will be required. We need to look at international financing flows, levies from aviation and maritime, reform of the multilateral development banks, carbon taxation and getting the fossil fuel companies to divert investment towards cleaner energy solutions.

The American Government was the only one which expressed a certain concern about the final text. It has since, I am glad to hear, shown approval for it. I expect it will be approved at COP. We have to fund it then and make sure it is up to the task and delivers quickly. I hope it helps the wider negotiations because there are so many different issues we have to address at COP. Loss and damage is critical but it has to be part of an overall solution.

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