Ireland must take speedier action on climate change, support poorer countries through funding

The climate crisis is the most urgent issue facing the planet. It is already affecting many of the communities with which Oxfam works – undermining their livelihoods through gradual, insidious changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, and increasing the frequency and intensity of weather extremes such as cyclones, floods and droughts. Vulnerability to disaster and climate change matters because it perpetuates and deepens poverty and suffering. It stands in the way of people – particularly women – being able to enjoy their basic rights and reduces their chances of ever being able to attain them.

Ireland has been a laggard on climate action, with the Government dragging its heels and missing key targets. The Government’s 2019 Climate Action Plan is a step forward but it is nowhere near ambitious enough. According to the UN, Ireland needs to reduce global emissions by 7.6 percent year-on-year from now to 2030, to ensure it is in compliance with commitments made in the Paris Agreement to keep global warming to 1.5°C above current levels. However, measures outlined in the Climate Action Plan amount to an average of only 2 percent reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions from now to 2030.

This is why Oxfam Ireland is calling on the new government to:

• Deliver annual reductions in climate-polluting emissions of at least 8 percent a year over the lifetime of the next government, i.e. the legally binding carbon budget for the period 2021 to 2025 would be equivalent to 8 percent year-on-year reductions compared to 2020.

The devastating impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives, especially in the world’s poorest countries. As well as reducing carbon emissions at home, richer countries like Ireland must provide sufficient climate finance to ensure the countries most impacted by climate breakdown have adequate resources to implement necessary adaption measures.

The Irish government has committed to at least double the percentage of ODA spending on climate finance by 2030. The overall climate finance provided by Ireland in 2018 was €80 million, which was approximately 10 percent of the overall ODA budget for that year. Therefore, to reach this target, Ireland needs to spend about 20 percent of its ODA budget on climate finance. However, with climate breakdown already under way, it is vital that this commitment is reached as soon as possible – by 2025 at the latest.

The next government needs to:

• Help poorer countries cope with the climate emergency by reaching the target of spending 20 percent of ODA on climate finance by 2025. Increased ODA spending on climate finance should receive an additional budgetary allocation rather than being diverted from the existing ODA budget.