Cop26: Who is on the Irish delegation and what are their priorities?

Ireland will be sending a large delegation to various stages of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as Cop26, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Climate Minister Eamon Ryan.

Cop26 takes place in Glasgow, Scotland from Sunday, October 31st until Friday, November 12th.

Ireland’s National Climate Delegation (NCD) for Cop26 includes members from a range of Government departments, specialist agencies and entities, including Met Éireann, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

Irish delegation

The NCD will be led by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan.

Other members of the Irish delegation will include Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney and Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

Ministers of State attending different points of Cop26 will include Martin Heydon (Department of Agriculture), Colm Brophy (Department of Foreign Affairs) and Malcolm Noonan (Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage).

The Irish delegation will engage in negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through its membership of the European Union.

Priorities

In a Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications document on Cop26, seen by BreakingNews.ie, the Irish delegation's priorities include a "science-based approach" to tackling climate change and a commitment to breaking the link between fossil fuels and economic progress.

The priorities will include the following:

Finalising the Paris rulebook
Championing a science-based approach
Adaptation and resilience, loss and damage
Climate finance
Agriculture
Oceans/cryosphere

The goals listed in the document include supporting measures to support increased ambition to limit the global temperature
increase to 1.5 degrees, a commitment made in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and supporting developing countries to meet their climate commitments.

Ireland will also champion a science-based approach and actions that are informed by the “best available science” – recognising the important role of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

World Leaders Summit

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will attend the World Leaders Summit at Cop26 on Monday, November 1st and Tuesday, November 2nd.

A spokesperson from the Department of the Taoiseach told BreakingNews.ie: "The Taoiseach intends to attend the COP26 Leaders Summit on 1st and 2nd November and we understand a number of other Ministers including Minister Ryan also intend to participate at various points throughout the Summit."

This summit is expected to be the largest gathering of world leaders that the UK has ever hosted.

Other leaders attending the summit along with Mr Martin will include US president Joe Biden, British prime minister Boris Johnson, French president Emmanuel Macron and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Irish events at Cop26

In parallel with the negotiations, Ireland will host or co-host four high-level side events at Cop26. "These will align with our international climate efforts, as well as our domestic ambition," said a Department of the Environment and Climate spokesman.

The events are:

Monday, November 8th 6pm-7pm: Champions Group on Adaptation Finance (Resilience Hub)
Tuesday, November 9th 7.30pm-9pm: Public Engagement and Renewable Energy (Virtual & Shared Pavilion)
Wednesday, November 10th 2pm-3pm: Addressing the ocean in supporting climate justice in Small Island Developing
States (AOSIS Pavilion)
Friday, November 12th 11am-1pm: European Peatlands Initiative (Peatlands Pavilion)

Ireland will also participate in a number of other events, at both Ministerial and expert level, during the two-week conference.