Policy Context

In 2022, Ireland published its International Climate Finance Roadmap. Ireland’s principles within climate include:

• Leave no one behind and contribute to sustainable development for the most climate vulnerable people, communities, and countries;
• Locally-led climate action;
• Climate justice and just transition;
• Gender-sensitive climate action; and
• Transparency and good governance.

Beyond these guiding principles, Ireland also has several key priorities:

• Preference for grant-based climate finance, especially for LDCs, SIDS and fragile states;
• Engagement with multilateral partners, including the EU, UN, MDBs and multilateral funds;
• Climate-proofing Ireland’s ;abbrODA, and focusing on better integrating climate action and resilience across all channels of development finance; and
• Exploring opportunities to engage the private sector in climate action, with a focus on value addition of the private sector in the areas of climate resilience and adaptation.

The roadmap does not provide a specific target for adaptation, and instead aims for a ‘proportion of funding for adaptation’.

ODA Spending

How much ODA does Ireland allocate to climate projects?

In 2021, Ireland allocated a total of US$99 million to climate funding, including funding for projects with climate as a principal objective and for projects with significant climate change components. This represented 19% of Ireland's bilateral allocable ODA in 2021, lower than the DAC average of 24%. In 2021, Ireland ranked 21^st among DAC donors for its total climate funding and 18^th for its climate funding as a percentage of bilateral ODA.

How is Ireland's climate-related ODA changing?

Ireland’s climate-related ODA, both principal and significant, has fluctuated between 2017 and 2021. In 2019, Ireland’s principal climate funding reached US$48 million. However, principal climate funding dropped yearly between 2019 and 2021 to US$35 million in 2021. Meanwhile, significant funding overall increased from US$56 million in 2017 to US$64 million in 2021.

In 2021, Ireland spent US$96 million on climate adaptation, of which US$50 million was cross-cutting projects related to both adaptation and mitigation.