Ahead of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Expo City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, starting tomorrow (Thursday, November 30), Ireland has been urged to “show leadership”.
The summit will assess what progress has been made globally to reach the Paris Agreement and to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5° above pre-industrial levels.
Ireland has been urged to make an initial “substantial pledge” to provide funding to support the recovery of particularly vulnerable counties from the impacts of climate change.
The establishment of a global Loss and Damage Fund was agreed at COP27 in Egypt last year, making it the first United Nations (UN) fund dedicated to addressing climate-driven damage.
Loss and Damage Fund
Ireland played a “leading role” in forging an agreement on the fund and has an important role to play in the successful operation of the fund, Trócaire policy advisor, Michael O’Brien said.
Ireland’s fair share of loss and damage finance has been estimated to be at least €1.5 billion annually by 2030, according to new research by Christian Aid Ireland and Trócaire.
Calling on Ireland to “show leadership” at COP28 and make a funding pledge, O’Brien said the fund remains empty to date and that wealthy, high-emitting nations must now lead the way in filling it.
Speaking before the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action discussing Ireland’s priorities ahead of COP28 yesterday (Tuesday, November 28), he said:
“Ireland can demonstrate leadership by being ready to make an initial substantial pledge to the fund at COP 28 [of at least €1.5 billion per year by 2030].”
A list of recommendations from a dedicated UN committee for implementing the Loss and Damage Fund to support nations most impacted by climate change will be discussed at COP28.
Fossil fuels and agriculture
Fossil fuels are by far the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, followed by agriculture.
This is according to the chief executive officer (CEO) of ActionAid Ireland, Karol Balfe who was also speaking at yesterday’s environment committee meeting.
“Industrialised approaches marketed and controlled by giant agri-business corporations are responsible for the bulk of emissions in the sector”, she told the committee.
Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, banks have provided 20 times more financing to fossil fuels and agriculture activities in the Global South than Global North governments have provided as climate finance to countries most affected, she said.
ActionAid Ireland also commissioned research analysing financial institutions headquartered and registered in Ireland, looking at agri-business and fossil fuel industries.
Investment managers registered in Ireland held US$6.2 billion in bonds and shares attributable to fossil fuel and agri-business in the Global South, with the top six investors all being oil and gas companies, their research shows.
Banks, investment funds and pension funds must stop financing fossil fuels, and stop financing deforestation and other harmful agri-business activities, including land grabs, ActionAid said.
COP28
Agriland spoke to the president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Tim Cullinan about his priorities for COP28 before travelling to the conference next week.
A balance needs to be found between food production and climate, Cullinan, who will attend the conference as part of a World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) delegation, said.
While there is a lot of work being done with Irish and European farmers, he said that bigger countries and emitters like China, India and Russia need to participate in climate action.
China is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) globally, accounting for 30%, followed by the US at 11%, the EU and India at both 7% and Russia at 5%, according to the UN.
Cullinan said that a lot of the emissions emitted in those industrialised countries come from industry and the oil and coal sectors, rather than agriculture.
The IFA president said it is “critically important” that counties that have the ability and climatic conditions to produce food, like Ireland, can maintain producing food.
In the EU 100,000ha of land for food production is lost due to whether events, such as flooding, every year, he said. Raising concerns that EU policy will “take more land out” of production, Cullinan added:
“We support nature restoration but again we need to be careful that we are not taking out more land, that we won’t be able to produce enough food to feed nations around the world.”
There is a “substantial” cost involved in the work that Irish and European farmers are doing around climate and producing more sustainable food, according to Cullinan.
“We are not seeing governments coming forward with proposals around funding outside of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). That is going to be a huge challenge,” he said.
“What we are trying to do here is reduce the temperature in the world, [and] you definitely need a level playing pitch to achieve that goal [in the] long term,” the IFA president said.