'Loss and damage' fund agreed at Cop27 to help vulnerable nations 'an empty bucket'

At the Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt last year, a landmark agreement on so-called “loss and damage” was agreed after years of geopolitical tussling. 

The agreement is designed to ensure wealthier nations pay a fairer share towards the aftermath of climate change-led events such as extreme cyclones and drought, helping smaller nations who are facing the most severe consequences.

Ireland committed at least €225m per year in international climate finance by 2025 at Cop26 in Glasgow in November 2021.

According to Christian Aid and Trócaire, Ireland should be paying more than six times that amount by the end of the decade as a fair share. Official data for 2021 show Ireland paid just under €100m that year.

The report by the charity organisations found wealthy countries initially pledged to provide $100bn a year in financial support to developing countries for climate action in both 2009 in Copenhagen and 2015 in Paris.

"However, more than a decade later, this target has still not been met — OECD data states just $83bn was provided in 2020, while academic and civil society estimates suggest the true value is less than a third of what has been reported.

Ireland has also fallen well short in making progress on this global goal, with our current contributions of €100m per year just one-fifth of our fair share — which in 2019 Christian Aid Ireland and Trócaire estimated as being approximately €500m per year."

That €500m should be tripled by the end of the decade to fully recognise Ireland's "fair share" of the fund, it said.

"While the scale of finance required is significant, it is important to remember that governments spent $7trn on subsidies for the fossil fuel industry in 2022 alone," the report said.

The poorest half of the world, nearly four billion people, are responsible for just 12% of all greenhouse gas emissions, it added. Ireland per person is one of the most intensive emitters in the world.

Writing the foreword to the report, Mary Robinson said agreeing the loss and damage fund was meaningless without it actually being stocked properly.

"The Cop27 decision to establish the fund was an historic first step, but it remains an empty bucket. Wealthy, high-emitting nations that overwhelmingly caused this crisis must now lead the way in filling it, in line with historic responsibility, equity and climate justice," she said.

This year's Cop28 event is in Dubai, with its hosts attracting criticism for ties to fossil fuels.