Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

International climate finance is an important priority for the Government. Last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs led on a cross-governmental process to formulate Ireland’s International Climate Finance Roadmap. The Roadmap sets out how Ireland will deliver on the target of providing at least €225 million per year in international climate finance by 2025, a commitment made by the Taoiseach at COP26 in Glasgow. Meeting this commitment will represent a more than doubling of Ireland’s climate finance from our 2020 baseline of €88.3 million.

The Roadmap builds on Ireland's positive record on climate finance, maintaining a focus on adaptation in some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, particularly Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. It also expands our focus in key areas including ocean protection, biodiversity, and Loss and Damage.

The Roadmap asserts Ireland’s intention to achieve its climate finance commitments primarily through public sources of finance. The 2020 figure, as above, forms the baseline for which progress to the targets will be measured . As was the case prior to the publication of the Roadmap, Ireland’s international climate finance is recorded ex-post as Official Development Assistance (ODA) as defined by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). As such, Ireland’s climate finance is not separate to ODA.

Over the past decade, Ireland has steadily increased its international climate finance. Preliminary figures show that in 2022, Ireland provided over €115 million in climate finance – our highest spend to date . This figure represents an increase of more than 100 percent in Ireland’s climate finance since 2015. As we scale up to meet the €225 million target, Ireland remains committed to the transparency and effectiveness of climate finance. Ireland monitors and reports climate finance in line with internationally agreed methodology, set by the OECD DAC.