Ireland to take on central role at COP31 climate summit

Ireland will take on a leading role in global climate negotiations when the COP31 summit begins in Turkey on Monday.

It comes amid growing pressure on wealthy countries to deliver on commitments to tackle climate change.

Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O'Brien, has said the European Union needs to change its approach to developing countries following the sometimes-bitter disagreements at last year's summit in Brazil.

However, Irish environmental organisations have warned that progress will depend on wealthy countries providing significantly more financial assistance to poorer nations, particularly through grants rather than loans.

The COP31 summit, which takes place in Antalya from 9 - 20 November, will bring together representatives of almost every country in the world to negotiate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help countries adapt to the growing impacts of climate change.

Ireland holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union and will play a central role, alongside the European Commission, in coordinating and leading the EU's negotiating effort.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Minister O'Brien said Ireland will have considerably greater responsibilities than at previous climate conferences.

He said the EU needed to approach the negotiations with a greater understanding of the concerns of developing countries, particularly those most vulnerable to climate change.

"I think it requires a change of approach," he said.

"I was quite taken aback by the intensity of some of that debate," he added, referring to the disagreements at COP30 in Belém, Brazil.

"We've learned from that," he said.

Mr O'Brien said Ireland was well placed to act as an honest broker because of its history and longstanding relationships with developing countries.

He said Ireland understood the experience of hunger, oppression and the difficulties countries faced in developing their economies.

He said a central objective of COP31 must be to ensure that commitments already made by wealthy countries are honoured, particularly those relating to climate finance.

At COP29 in Azerbaijan, developed countries agreed to take the lead in mobilising at least $300 billion annually by 2035 to help developing countries tackle climate change.

A broader goal was also agreed to scale up climate finance from all public and private sources to at least $1.3 trillion annually by 2035.

However, poorer countries have repeatedly expressed frustration about the amount of finance available, the difficulties in accessing it, and the conditions attached to funding.

Minister O'Brien said his discussions with representatives of vulnerable island states had highlighted the urgency of the problem.

He said access to finance was critically important to allow those countries to adapt to climate change, but they had found it extremely difficult.

"We haven't seen the deployment of that same level of capital, and that's the one focus that I absolutely want to bring," he said.

The Minister said COP31 should concentrate on implementing existing international agreements, rather than becoming another conference dominated by the announcement of additional targets.

"We want progress. We want to make good on the commitments that we've made as a global community. We've got to be honest about where we've fallen short."

However, Irish environmental and development organisations say wealthy countries need to go considerably further.

Karol Balfe, acting chair of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition and Chief Executive of ActionAid Ireland, said climate finance would be one of the defining issues at COP31.

"It's all about the money," she said.

She said poorer countries were suffering disproportionately from the consequences of climate change, despite having contributed relatively little to the historical emissions responsible for global warming.

She accused wealthy countries of dragging their heels on providing the financial assistance required.

Ms Balfe said a crucial issue was whether climate finance would be provided through public grants or loans that could increase the existing debt burdens of developing countries.

"Private finance has a role, but it cannot be a substitute for grants-based public climate finance," she said.

"Why should they have to take a loan that's going to create further debt?"

She also called for substantially greater financial commitments to the international Loss and Damage Fund, which was established to help vulnerable countries deal with destruction and other losses caused by climate change.

Another important issue at COP31 will be the development of an international mechanism to ensure that the transition away from fossil fuels is fair to workers, communities, and developing countries.

Governments agreed at last year's summit to develop a Just Transition mechanism, with further negotiations on how it will operate due to take place in Antalya.

Ms Balfe said the transition away from fossil fuels and environmentally damaging activities was essential but should not leave workers without employment or worsen existing inequalities.

"That needs to happen, but it needs to happen in a way that makes people feel safe and secure," she said.

Associate Professor of Politics at Dublin City University, Diarmuid Torney, said COP31 also offered an important opportunity to accelerate the global transition away from fossil fuels.

He said Ireland's leadership role within the EU was particularly significant, given that the Government is due to co-host an international conference with the Pacific island state of Tuvalu next year on transitioning away from fossil fuels.

He said this presented an opportunity for Ireland to help accelerate international action.

A separate initiative promoted by the Turkish COP31 Presidency seeks to increase electricity's share of global final energy consumption from just over 20% to 35% by 2035, as part of efforts to reduce dependence on coal, oil and gas.

Prof Torney, who is travelling to Antalya by ferry and rail in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions from his outward journey, acknowledged criticism that successive climate summits had failed to deliver sufficient progress.

However, he said the COP process remained an essential forum for international negotiations.

"We have the infrastructure; we have the mechanism, but we really need governments and businesses to step up to the plate," and move away from fossil fuels faster, he said.

Reaching agreement will be difficult

Minister O'Brien also acknowledged the difficulties facing the negotiations.

He described last year's COP30 summit in Brazil as chaotic at times and said he was determined that this year's negotiations should not become similarly divisive.

He said the European Union was approaching the summit positively but warned that reaching an agreement would be difficult.

The Minister said COP31 needed to become more relevant to ordinary people, rather than remaining an abstract international process.

He pointed to countries such as Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands, where rising sea levels are threatening communities and their long-term future.

For those countries, he said, climate change was not a distant concern.

It raised fundamental questions about whether their countries would continue to exist in 50, 80, or 100 years' time.