Ireland Must Strengthen Global Support: Enhanced Commitments to Official Development Assistance, Climate Finance, and Loss and Damage

At the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, Global North countries pledged $100 billion per year in climate finance intended to meet the needs of developing countries most impacted by climate change. At the 2021 UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, COP26, the Irish Government set out a climate finance target of €225 million per year by 2025, and set out a pathway towards this target in the Climate Finance Roadmap.

Social Justice Ireland welcomes important focus on adaptation and building capacity and resilience in poorer countries. Irish climate finance is rightly provided publicly on a grant-basis, as opposed to through loans. This approach is to be commended, as contributions in the form of repayable loans serve only to add to unsustainable debt burdens ultimately to be shouldered by the world’s poorest. Ireland can lead as an example in this regard. The obligation to provide climate finance should be recognised by all developed countries as a responsibility derived from the polluter pays principle.

On the face of it much progress is being made, with an additional €41.5 million in climate finance allocated in Budget 2024, bringing Ireland’s climate finance contribution to €187.3 million in 2024. However, we are concerned that the connection drawn between climate finance and ODA distort our commitments. Including our climate finance contribution as part of our ODA commitment has the effect of counting the same contribution twice, once as a contribution to ODA and then again as a contribution to climate finance. This leaves us further behind in fulfilling our obligations than at first glance. Ireland should decouple these goals and make a concerted effort to recover lost ground in relation to our ODA and climate finance targets. Ireland has committed to reaching targets for Official Development Assistance (ODA), Climate Finance, and Loss and Damage. It is critical that Government recognize that these are three separate obligations under three different agreements, as explored by Migrations in Our Common Home: Planning for Change – Climate Change and Migration, and contributions to each should be disaggregated from one another.

Reaching the UN goal of 0.7 per cent of income in ODA requires increased effort in the years ahead. As Table 1 shows, over time Ireland had achieved sizeable increases in our ODA allocation. In 2006 a total of €814m (0.53 per cent of GNP) was allocated to ODA, which was the interim target set by the Government. Budget 2008 further increased the ODA budget to reach €920.7m (0.59 per cent of GNP). However, between 2008 and 2014, the ODA budget was a focus of government cuts and in 2014 Ireland’s ODA was €614.9m (0.41 per cent of GNI* – a 33 per cent reduction on 2008). Since 2014, the monetary value of Ireland’s ODA has increased. In Budget 2022 the allocation to ODA exceeded €1 billion and also exceeded 0.5 per cent of GNI*. However, the ODA contribution as a proportion of GNI* once again fell below 0.5 per cent in Budgets 2023 and 2024.

Table 1: Ireland’s net overseas development assistance, 2010-2024

Source: Government of Ireland (2024) and various Budget Documents. *Estimate based on GNI*, which Social Justice Ireland considers to be a better measurement of Ireland’s national income (GNI* data from CSO National Income and Expenditure Annual Results, various years). Modified GNI (GNI*) is an indicator designed specifically to measure the size of the Irish economy by excluding Globalisation effects. **Projections from Budget documentation and Estimates.

Social Justice Ireland recognises and welcomes the increased contributions in recent Budgets to ODA. Ireland still lacks a strategy for reaching the UN-agreed 0.7 per cent target and we call on the Government to develop such a strategy with a view to reaching this target by 2029. We must continue to recover lost ground in relation to our ODA commitments.

Given Ireland’s current and projected economic growth, Social Justice Ireland believes that Government should commit to reaching the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNI* to be allocated within the next five years. In Table 2, Social Justice Ireland proposes a possible pathway to reaching the UN target of 0.7 per cent over the next five years. Here again we use GNI* as a more realistic measurement of Ireland’s national income. This makes the target all the more achievable.

Table 2: Possible pathways to ODA targets 2024-2029

Calculations: Social Justice Ireland based on estimates of Ireland’s macroeconomic prospects contained in Budget 2024 Economic & Fiscal Outlook and author’s calculations.

Social Justice Ireland believes that these allocations should not include the increase in expenditure in respect of the Ukrainian crisis which should be ring-fenced and warehoused. They should also not include our commitments to Climate Finance or Loss and Damage. Rebuilding our commitment to ODA and honouring the UN target should be an important policy for Ireland to pursue in the coming years. Not only would its achievement be a major success for government and an important element in the delivery of promises made but it would also be of significance internationally. Ireland’s success would not only provide additional assistance to countries in need but would also provide leadership to those other European countries who do not meet the target.

Social Justice Ireland welcomes the Government’s approach to allocating aid to the poorest countries in the world and for its capacity to work in partnership with civil society in these countries and urges Government not to lose sight of the continuing and pressing need for this support.