Marine and Agriculture One of Top Four Government Departments to Provide "Climate Finance"

30th March 2023

Ireland's Climate Finance report - Between 2016 and 2021, Ireland’s overall international climate finance has increased by 40%

Seven per cent of Ireland’s financial support for climate action in developing countries came from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in 2021.

A report into “climate finance”, as it is known, found the marine and agriculture department was one of the top four Government departments to provide support to developing countries.

The support involves subsidising climate change mitigation, adaptation, technology development and capacity building.

Climate finance represented 10.2% of Ireland’s official development assistance in 2021.

International climate action, including “climate finance”, is a “key priority” for the Irish government, the report explains.

The 2020 Programme for Government sets out a commitment to double the proportion of ODA that is climate finance by 2030.

Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue

At last November’s international climate summit, COP26 in November 2021, the Taoiseach announced a target for Ireland to provide €225 million per year of climate finance to developing countries by 2025.

The report sets out in detail Ireland’s climate finance expenditure in 2021, with the overall figure being €99.6 million.

The monies were drawn from the Department of Foreign Affairs; the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications; the Department of Finance, and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.

Of Ireland’s €99.6 million in climate finance in 2021, the Department of Foreign Affairs provided 57% (€57.1 million); the Department of Finance provided approximately 18% (€18.4 million); the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications also provided approximately 18% (€17.5 million), and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Marine provided 7% (€6.6 million).

48% of this was spent on activities that specifically target adaptation (only), another 48% went on cross-cutting activities (which targets both adaptation & mitigation), and the remaining 4% went to mitigation (only) activities.

The 2021 figure of €99.6 million is an increase of 12.8% on the 2020 figure and stands as the highest amount of climate finance provided by Ireland to date.

Between 2016 and 2021, Ireland’s overall international climate finance has increased by 40%

The full review is here

Published in News Update

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About The Author

Lorna Siggins

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Lorna Siggins is a print and radio reporter, and a former Irish Times western correspondent. She is the author of Search and Rescue: True stories of Irish Air-Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 (2022); Everest Callling (1994) on the first Irish Everest expedition; Mayday! Mayday! (2004); and Once Upon a Time in the West: the Corrib gas controversy (2010). She is also co-producer with Sarah Blake of the Doc on One "Miracle in Galway Bay" which recently won a Celtic Media Award

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