Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
277. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Finance the commitments made by Ireland under the remit of his Department at COP26 and COP27, respectively; the progress made to date on actioning those, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36883/23]
View answerAt COP26, Ireland joined the statement on international public support for the clean energy transition. This statement commits signatories to prioritising support to the clean energy transition, ending new direct public support to the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector, and encouraging other actors to implement similar commitments.
The Department of Finance monitors actions related to this commitment. Ireland has made strong progress on implementing the commitment to date, and I set out some relevant actions here.
The Deputy will be aware of the many actions under successive Climate Action Plans demonstrating Ireland’s prioritisation of support to the clean energy transition. In particular Climate Action Plan 2023 seeks to accelerate renewable energy generation through onshore and offshore wind energy as well as solar.
The Fossil Fuel Divestment Act 2018 provided for the National Treasury Management Agency to divest the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund’s (ISIF) from all fossil fuel undertakings. Indeed ISIF's Climate Investment Strategy seeks to fund climate-positive initiatives which support Ireland’s transition to a Net Zero low-carbon economy. This is a two-pillar approach:
• Firstly, supporting the sustainable infrastructural requirements of the Irish economy out to 2030 in key areas where carbon emissions are prevalent, as outlined in the Government's Climate Action Plan.
• Secondly, in funding the development of new technologies and business models that will support the longer-term transition of the Irish economy to Net Zero beyond 2030 and before 2050.
In 2021, ISIF announced its ambition to invest €1bn in climate-related investments over a five-year period. ISIF has made c. €500m of climate-related investments to date in support of this decarbonisation strategy, €235m of which has been invested since 2021.
Furthermore, Ireland is a member of a Paris Alignment like-minded group of shareholders in Multilateral Development Banks, which works to encourage those MDBs to fully align with the Paris Agreement, including phasing out support for fossil fuels.
Finally, I am informed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment that Ireland does not operate any type of export credit supports. This has been the case since 1998 when, following a review, the Government decided to cease providing supports.
