Written answers
Thursday, 25 January 2024
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Climate Change Policy
Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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44. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade what progress has been made to scale up climate financing through existing channels; what new funding initiatives are planned and/ or underway; what plans there are to enhance reporting on the gender responsiveness of Ireland's climate financing; if official 2023 figures have been submitted to the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3343/24]
Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has made significant progress in scaling up Ireland's international climate finance in recent years. Ireland’s International Climate Finance Roadmap sets out how we will deliver on the target of providing at least €225 million annually in climate finance by 2025. The Roadmap is rooted in Ireland’s effective climate finance to-date, which focuses primarily on supporting adaptation in climate-vulnerable countries.
In 2022, Ireland provided €120.8 million in climate finance, the highest amount to date. This figure represents an increase of more than 100 percent since 2015. We are on track to meet the €225 million target next year.
Our climate finance funding is channelled through our Embassies, through multilateral organisations, and Irish and international NGOs. At COP28 in Dubai in December, the Taoiseach pledged €25 million to the new Loss & Damage Fund for 2024 and 2025 to support vulnerable countries affected by climate disasters. Another new channel of funding is the recently launched Climate Action Account of the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to which Ireland has pledged €5 million.
Under OECD rules, Ireland is required to report all Official Development Assistance that supports climate action and gender equality respectively. As both are core priorities of Ireland’s policy for international development, the Department of Foreign Affairs decided to include a gender/climate analysis of bilateral climate finance in Ireland’s Climate Finance Report 2021. Analysis of the latest available data will feature in the 2022 report, which will be published shortly. In addition, in future years, the Department intends to provide relevant qualitative data through the provision of case studies.
In line with the EU Governance Regulation adopted in 2018, Ireland reports on climate finance to the EU on an ex-post basis. The figures for 2023 will be submitted to the EU before the deadline of 30 September 2024.
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