Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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52. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of the contribution Ireland has made to the green climate fund in each of the years 2015 to 2020 and to date in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4031/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Ireland made a commitment at the Paris Climate Change Conference in November 2015 to provide at least €175 million in public funding in support of climate action in developing countries between 2016 and 2020. Ireland successfully met this commitment by 2018.

Ireland focuses most of its international development cooperation and climate action in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The majority of Ireland’s climate finance, funded through Irish Aid of the Department of Foreign Affairs, is channelled to bilateral programmes in LDCs as well contributions to multilateral financial institutions and to multilateral climate change funds.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a fund established within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the primary funding mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation investments to address climate change. Ireland committed to commencing contributions to the GCF in 2016, with a view to building up support over future years.

From 2016 to 2019, Ireland, through the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, has provided an annual contribution to the GCF of €2 million.

In 2020, Ireland doubled its annual contribution providing €4 million to the GCF, in line with a commitment made for the first replenishment of the GCF, to which Ireland pledged a total of €16 million over the period from 2020 to 2023.