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

I agree with the Deputy's latter point. Public finance will be important, but it is going to be challenging because we in the developed world have to extend more and there should also be a broadening of contributors to that. We should be very careful here. Last Friday, I spoke to one of the leaders of one of the African states who is a real expert and a brilliant leader in the area. He said that he wants private finance. He said that private finance is key but that Africa cannot get private finance. I will give an example. Last Friday, the International Renewable Energy Agency published data on the new renewables revolution that is taking place, showing that 473 GW of new renewable power was built last year but only 2.7 GW of that went to Africa. I agree that we need public finance but we absolutely need private finance too for a whole variety of different issues. That mosaic or layering of finance does not absolve developed countries of the obligation to help in public ways but we actually need to focus on getting private finance too. If we do not get that, we will not get the $1.5 trillion per year that we need to spend in developing countries, other than China. Private finance is also key here.

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