Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 May 2021
375. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the amount of funding his Department is providing to climate adaptation and mitigation activities in some of the least developed countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1434/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraIreland has shown strong leadership in international climate finance, principally through my Department's Official Development Assistance programme, more widely known as Irish Aid. In 2019, Ireland spent over €93 million on international climate action. The Department of Foreign Affairs provided the largest proportion of this, spending over €71 million on climate action. The 2019 figure represents an increase of approximately 17% in climate finance as compared to 2018, which signals Ireland’s policy commitment to addressing climate change. Figures for 2020 will be available in the coming months.
In the 2020 Programme for Government Ireland has committed to at least doubling the percentage of Official Development Assistance spent on climate finance by 2030. The Department of Foreign Affairs is leading a process, along with the Department of Finance, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, to develop a cross-Departmental Climate Finance Strategy to guide this increase in funding, with a view to publication later this year.
The focus of much of Ireland’s international climate expenditure is on vulnerable people living at the front line of climate change in developing countries. This is where finance is most needed – where communities are coping with drought, floods, crop failure and loss of natural resources. Ninety nine per cent of Ireland’s international climate finance is dedicated to adaptation efforts, much of which has mitigation co-benefits.
In 2019, we established the Ireland Trust Fund for Building Resilience in Small Island Developing States administered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), targeted directly at building climate change and disaster resilience in all of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which are members of the ADB. Ireland is a long-standing contributor to the Least Developed Countries Fund, which supports national adaptation efforts to cope with the effects of climate change. Ireland endorsed the Principles for Locally-Led Adaptation at the Climate Adaptation Summit in January 2021, and is an early contributor to the new Least Developed Countries Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR) initiative which aims to increase the amount of adaptation funding that reaches local communities at the frontline of climate change impacts.
