Ireland will honour its commitment of €225 million per year in taxpayer money to “help other countries invest in climate action,” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking to RTÉ News while at the United Nations COP28 climate conference in Dubai, the Taoiseach said that “we need to put our money where our mouth is and help poorer countries to reduce emissions,” adding: “By doing so we will help ourselves.”
Ireland to contribute to climate finance at COP28 negotiations – Varadkar | Read more: https://t.co/HGsGrI39z3 pic.twitter.com/RTnaQVOMXj
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 1, 2023
“The real thing that we can bring to the table as a small country, but also a wealthy country, is helping with climate finance – helping other countries to invest in climate action,” he said, adding that Ireland would be honouring its commitment to increase its annual contribution to €225 million per year.
For context, in 2020, Ireland’s climate finance totalled just €88.3 million, comprising more than 10% of the country’s total Official Development Assistance (ODA) – a kind of financial aid given to developing countries.
The Programme for Government 2020 committed to doubling the proportion of Ireland’s ODA that counts as climate finance by 2030, and in November 2021, then-Taoiseach Micheál Martin set a further target of providing at least €225 million per year in climate finance to developing countries by 2025.
Continuing to speak to RTÉ, Varadkar further said that he would formally announce Ireland’s contribution to international climate finance tomorrow during his address on behalf of the country to the COP28 conference.
The Taoiseach claimed that many countries make promises regarding climate pledges which then fail to materialise, so rather than making any new promises he said that Ireland would simply ensure it followed through on the pledges it had made to date.
He said that while climate finance was the best thing Ireland could contribute to the climate fight, at home he would retain focus on reducing emissions and scaling up climate policies. He added that Ireland was negotiating at the UN conference as part of the European Union – a bloc he said was setting a good example on climate matters.
EDIT: An earlier version of this article contained a typographical error saying at one point that €255 million in taxpayer money was pledged – this was a typo, and the piece has been amended to reflect the true figure of €225 million.
I wish Santa Claus were as generous with other peoples money as Leo is with ours.
Just open wide the country’s purse and let any chancer take what they want. I said years ago that the climate malarkey was going to be monetised, and so it is coming to pass. So more and more money will disappear into the abyss – this abyss will no doubt be the offshore accounts of corrupt government ministers. If we are so awash with riches here then why are so many people homeless, cold and at their wits’ end?
Some years ago an accountant friend was employed to track funding an EU aid agency was doling out. She was disgusted by the fraud she uncovered. The agency simply stopped giving in these instances of fraud and moved on to the next cause. There was no accountablity demanded and criminal charges brought. I predict there will be much fraud in these climate schemes.
Politicians should not decide who is going to receive government help. Taxpayers should decide who they wish to help to make sure their contributions are wisely spent. This should apply to all aid because I have see all too many countries where mismanagement, corruption, fraud and theft of their resources and taxes far exceeds the aid given. Offer trade not aid.
this man is a complete joke roll on election day
In the meantime in Ireland effluent keeps being pumped into the sea
Lovely. He is brown not because of his nationality but from licking Europe’s hole
More madness. This money will be going to corrupt governments after nonsense NGOs have their bite. Look at the homeless on our streets and what that money could do in Ireland. Dublin is like a shanty town sometimes with homeless and soup kitchens and their queues and second hand clothes rails. Ireland, the beggar, is acting the big fella away from home.
Why is RTE reporting the figure as 25 million? I would really like to know which number is true – a fifth of a billion is one hell of a typo!!
30 years we’ve been paying fines to eu because govt turned a blind eye to what we needed to do. Too busy “protecting Jobs/Industry” making the ordinary people pay the fines through higher taxation.
Now Irish climate taxes swindle will be sent to other countries from an already overdrawn overdrained public accounts so they can keep cop wef ngos and every other quango funded at our expense. How much more wasting of public money will it take to throw these people in jail ? This is theft at its finest when the country is already on its knees
The Irish government will do anything for a pat on the head by their masters.
Ireland is the poorest, or one of the poorest, countries in the world by the only metric that counts. We have a higher per capita debt than any other country thanks to concerted efforts by generations of politicians to sell everything they could. I’m sure this con-man couldn’t care less though, he’ll get his lifetime pension and all sorts of other perks to top up the millions he has no doubt made in the past few years while he held the keys to the cash-box.
You think they could invest in Ireland renewable resources and electrical infrastructure first! Clowns
Why does RTE say 25 Million? Is that more of their disinformation? See their home-page!
After Mary Robinson’s embarrassing zoom call, asking the president of the Summit to lie about science…. (see the Guardian!) We then give 225 Millions? What???