Aimee Connolly – Why Women’s Rights

February 8, 2021

ActionAid Ireland is an international aid charity fighting for women’s rights, social justice and an end to poverty. The second guest blog in our “Why Women’s Rights” series is by Make-up Artist and Entrepreneur Aimee Connolly.

Why do women’s rights matter to you?

As a woman living in the 21^st century, I believe that it is vital that women should have equal rights to men. I have always considered myself equal to men both in business and in my personal life. Maybe this is because I’ve worked in the beauty industry from a young age. This sector is distinctive because there have always been a wealth of powerful women at the forefront of brands – from Estée Lauder, Helena Rubenstein, and Elizabeth Arden right through to Charlotte Tilbury. I was also brought up by a strong and inspiring single mother, a successful entrepreneur in her own right, who taught me to know my worth and encouraged me to realise my potential.

Coming from the background that I do and with the support I’ve had, I’m very aware of my privileged position and the opportunities I have had access to. In Ireland and across the world, women are still suffering discrimination when it comes to pay, harassment, racism, lack of access to promotions, education, to name but a few. Society is progressing when it comes to rights issue and a light has been shone on a range of injustices through movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. We need to make sure that real change comes from this. Ultimately I think that all women, wherever they may live, should have equal rights. If you empower women, society as a whole reaps the rewards and who can argue with that?

What is your proudest achievement?

This is a tough question, but it has to be growing my brand Sculpted to the point where I sold a quarter of a million products in 2020. It is my life and has been since I finished college. As a make-up artist and a commerce graduate, it combines both my passions and I love bringing new, innovate products to the market, as well as offering education through our virtual academy. The business is entirely self-funded and I saved since I was 16 to invest myself. I work with a team of incredible women and men and I’m so proud of what has been achieved to date and our ambitious plans for the future.

If you could change one thing for women what would it be?

It would be that women could feel confident enough to own their place in the world and their seat at the table when it comes to business. A lot of women feel second guessed or overshadowed in in the workplace and imposter syndrome is rife. Based on recent stats it’s clear that the gender pay gap is still a major issue and there is a lack of women in leadership positions. I would love if women were appreciated for what they can bring and were encouraged to achieve all that they are capable of.

What is your hope for a post-covid world?

I am hoping for far more freedom in comparison to how we’re living now. Personally I’ve really realised how I’ve taken the little things for granted and will appreciate being able to meet my friends, to hug my loved ones and go on holiday. Generally, I hope it makes people more appreciative of the world that we live in and what’s important when it come down to it.

This Christmas I really appreciated who was around the table, as opposed to what was on the table, as cliché as that sounds. For me not having my extended family there was really difficult but it made me grateful for that fact that even though we weren’t together we were all healthy and safe. It brought me back to the things that are truly important, like your family and your health, rather than the material things that we can get caught up in. I hope we all remember that feeling and work towards having fun and living our lives but not forgetting the fundamentals of what makes us happy.

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Protestors at COP 28 in Dubai. Photo: Konrad Skotnicki.

Belfast Climate Change March, 2019. Photo: Trócaire.

The Profit Driving the Crisis

Despite their overwhelming contribution to global emissions, fossil fuel companies continue to attract significant financial backing—driven by their enduring profitability. This is starkly illustrated by the case of ExxonMobil, the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. In 2023, ExxonMobil reported €33.63 billion ($36 billion) in profit. That is almost twice the GDP of Botswana (€18.1 billion) and nearly three times Namibia’s GDP (€11.5 billion).

Ireland plays a hugely disproportionate role in facilitating investments into fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil. In 2023, the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of CO2e. This is more than the CO2e emissions for the entire country of Ireland—and more than ten times that generated by Sierra Leone.

The Global Human Impact

The climate crisis is here, now, and it is causing disproportionate harm in the Global South. In Bangladesh, rising sea levels and increasingly severe cyclones are displacing coastal communities, with projections indicating that 17% of the entire country could be underwater by 2050. The legally binding Paris Agreement on climate change explicitly acknowledges the importance of tackling private finance. Its three overarching goals are: keeping below 1.5C of warming; increasing adaptation and making finance flows consistent with low emissions and resilience.

This gives a clear mandate for action: both tax reform and corporate regulation are needed to tackle financial flows, and both nationally in Ireland and at EU level, ‘polluter pays’ taxes are lacking and regulation of the financial sector remains weak and fragmented. While EU regulation exists, it is designed more to nudge investors toward more sustainable investment practices by increasing transparency and reporting levels than to enforce strict standards. And it is moving in the wrong direction: the recently passed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive excluded investments; and now the EU Commission’s Omnibus legislative proposal threatens to undo the limited gains made on climate plans, as well as blocking future attempts for stronger action at national level.

The Risk of Inaction

Fossil fuel investment is too profitable to remain weakly regulated. If Ireland continues with its current strategy of encouraging FDI at all costs, and relying on weak EU regulation, we are headed for catastrophe. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly warned that every fraction of a degree beyond 1.5°C brings irreversible consequences: collapsed ice sheets, vanishing coral reefs, and extreme weather events that will make vast regions of the planet uninhabitable. And yet, companies are developing oil and gas fields that could push global warming beyond 2°C.

Our research found that 91% of the investments made into fossil fuel companies by investment managers based in Ireland were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion like these. Ireland cannot afford inaction on this issue.

About This Research

The figures in this report regarding investment from Ireland are based on new research commissioned by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire. In the paper, we uncover the scale of fossil fuel investment through Ireland, who the investors are, and in which fossil fuel companies they are investing. We analyse the current regulatory framework and explain why it is inadequate—and moving in the wrong direction. And we make specific recommendations for change, which are summarised below.

Summary of Recommendations

Regulate the private financial sector
Ireland must end its outsized role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investment. Ireland should introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework which includes the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate. The transposition of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive could achieve this if downstream activities are included and the Omnibus proposal is rejected. Ireland should prohibit investments in fossil fuel expansion and require investors to implement climate transition plans consistent with a 1.5°C climate limit.

Endorse the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Ireland should endorse developing a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to curb fossil fuel expansion and commit to a fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels.

Support tax justice
Ireland should support bold and fair new global tax rules through the UN Framework Convention on Tax, should adopt all OECD BEPS measures, and should conduct an updated and comprehensive spillover analysis of its tax policy. Ireland should take coordinated action globally, at the EU level and domestically to introduce a range of new taxes to mobilise finance needed for climate justice, based on ‘polluter pays’ and social equity principles such as wealth taxes for the highest earners, climate damages tax on investors, fossil fuel production taxes and levies on aviation and shipping.

Finance a just transition
Ireland must also meet its fair share climate finance obligations under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and pay our ecological debt to the Global South. Ireland should support conditionality-free debt cancellation for countries on the front lines of the climate crisis, commit to a new UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt, moving debt negotiations from the IMF to the UN, and to a debt workout mechanism that is fully representative and fair.