Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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At the opening plenary of COP28 on Thursday 30 November in Dubai, final agreement was reached on a new Loss and Damage Fund to support developing countries to respond to the impacts of climate change. Ireland, represented by the Department of Foreign Affairs, played a key role throughout this year on the design, scope and structure of the new Fund for Loss and Damage through our shared seat with Germany on the Transitional Committee established last year at COP27.

The main priority for Ireland was to ensure that vulnerable countries, particularly Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, would be able to access the new Fund. We are glad that the Fund will have a specific minimum allocation for these country groups.

On Saturday 2 December, at the World Leader’s Summit at COP28, the Taoiseach announced that Ireland will provide €25 million to the new Fund for Loss and Damage over the two years, 2024 and 2025. This pledge is a recognition that vulnerable populations that have contributed the least to global emissions have the greatest difficulty getting access to the finance and resources needed to cope with these impacts.

Other countries announced pledges to the fund at COP28, including UAE, US, Japan, and many EU member States, including Germany, France, Italy, and Denmark.

Ireland’s pledge for Loss and Damage aligns with Ireland’s broader climate finance commitment, to provide at least €225 million a year in international climate finance by 2025, a more than doubling of our climate finance since 2020. We are on track to meet this target and will ensure that we balance our contributions between our climate finance priorities, including support for adaptation and for Loss and Damage.