ODA, Climate Finance, and Loss and Damage in Budget 2024

Government must accept that ODA, Climate Finance, and Loss and Damage are three different commitments made under three different agreements. Reaching the UN goal of 0.7 per cent of income in ODA will require increased effort in the years ahead. Social Justice Ireland recognises and welcomes the increased contributions in recent Budgets to ODA. However, 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 2028 (see Social Justice Matters, ch.13).

Notwithstanding our current economic difficulties, Ireland must continue to recover lost ground in relation to our ODA commitments. Irish climate finance is provided publicly on a grant-basis, as opposed to through loans. There is an important focus on adaptation and building capacity and resilience in poorer countries. However, while a climate finance plan has been devised, with the publishing of the Climate Finance Roadmap (Government of Ireland, 2022) in July 2022, the connection of Climate Finance with ODA distorts reality - we are further behind in fulfilling our commitments than we publicly depict. Notwithstanding our current economic difficulties, Ireland must continue to recover lost ground in relation to our ODA and climate finance commitments.

In both Irish Aid’s Climate and Environmental Finance Report 2020 (Department of Foreign Affairs, 2022) and the Irish International Climate Finance Roadmap, reference is made to Climate Finance representing approximately 10 per cent of Ireland’s ODA in the years 2017 to 2020. Both also refer to a commitment to reach a target of €225m by 2025. This would equate to roughly 73 per cent of Ireland’s actual share of our Climate Finance target. Using these metrics, the real number would be closer to €308.2m. This is separate from our commitments towards ODA and any provision for our fair share of the Loss and Damage fund agreed at COP27 in 2022.

Social Justice Ireland calls on Government to set allocate an additional €1bn combined to meet our ODA, Climate Finance, and Loss and Damage commitments.

In light of increasing food insecurity, particularly among countries in the Global South, we further call on Government to provide an additional €1bn towards the eradication of world hunger.

Budget Choices 2024 is available to download here.