Ireland prepares to double funding of climate action in developing countries

IRELAND is to double its funding of climate action in developing countries – but charities say the pledge is still far below what is needed.

A review shows Irish Aid channelled more than €93m into climate action projects in the developing world in 2019.

Overseas Aid Minister Colm Brophy said a road map would be finalised soon for increasing the contribution to at least twice that amount by 2030.

But Christian Aid Ireland said it needed to increase fivefold if Ireland was to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Under the 2015 agreement, 197 countries pledged to jointly fund climate action in poor countries by $100bn a year by 2020. They are $20bn off target and there are fears progress will stall because of the financial pressures of Covid-19, although the United

Nations says countries have found $11trn to tackle the virus, which makes their climate finance commitments small by comparison.

Mr Brophy defended Ireland’s performance.

“Even against the backdrop of Covid and all the other difficulties we’re in, we secured an actual increase in our overall financing,” he said.

Christian Aid queried the source of the funds, saying it is meant to be additional to the general overseas development aid (ODA) budget.

Ireland’s ODA took a major hit in the last recession, falling from a high of €871m in 2007 to €600m in 2015 but it has risen annually since and is €868m this year.

The minister said climate finance came mostly from the ODA but also partly through the Departments of Climate Change, Agriculture and Finance. However, the road map would set out how it would be sourced in future.

He said aside from dedicated climate finance, all ODA would take climate into account.

The €93.6m in 2019 was disbursed through state programmes in 12 countries and 15 NGOs in 33 countries.

Among the projects were the development of solar power in Gaza and a programme to replace open fires with stoves in Malawi. Tree-planting is also a major focus.

Mr Brophy acknowledged that, for those working in overseas development, progress could often be interrupted. A crisis such as Covid-19 or conflict such as that in Tigray in Ethiopia can stall work.

“I am always amazed at the resilience and the determination and focus of people within the sector to deal with the fact that they’re constantly facing the impact of something or other.

Climate change was the biggest threat, however.