ActionAid Ireland Manifesto: Four priorities for a just, caring world

November 7, 2024

As we see election posters go up across the country in the coming week, here at ActionAid Ireland we want to see those running for a seat in Leinster House committing to work on global issues impacting those facing poverty around the world, with a particular commitment to women’s rights.

The elections on the other side of the Atlantic make one thing very clear, we need to see more, not less, solidarity and a greater fight to address global poverty, gender inequality and the climate crisis.

We work with women facing injustice, inequality and denial of their human rights. Their lives are now more than ever defined by crises of climate change, armed conflict, economic injustice, and social inequality – all of which are connected.

We need urgent – and transformative- action.

States such as Ireland, who are committed to human rights, multilateralism, international cooperation, and women’s rights need to maintain these priorities in the face of global pushbacks.

To address the scale of the problems, transformative change is required, and we need to see ambitious commitment by those running for a seat in our next government to deliver this.

We believe this can be done by addressing four priorities. Newly elected TDs and Senators can foster a more just, caring and sustainable world, where women live free from violence, poverty and marginalization, this is how:

CLIMATE ACTION THAT TRANSORMS WOMEN’S LIVES: Recognizing the historical responsibility of a country like Ireland and the need to phase and out fossil fuels in a way that is fair, fully financed and enables a just and feminist transition. 

FULFILLING OUR INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS IN A WAY THAT DELIVERS FOR WOMEN: Recognizing and delivering on Ireland’s international obligations, ensuring that they deliver for women’s rights and gender equality. 

MAINTAIN FOCUS AND PRESSURE ON VIOLATIONS IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY. 

ENSURE GOVERNMENT POLICIES UPHOLD HUMAN RIGHTS: Recognizing the need to revise the Irish and global economic architecture and fiscal policy, for a just, feminist economic system that centers care for both people and the planet.

These four priorities were developed given the series of global crises highlighted below that ActionAid Ireland will continue to speak about and work on with the next Dáil.

What they mean in practice:

Human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory

At the forefront of all our minds is the horror we are seeing in occupied Palestinian territory. In October 2023, Israel launched a military attack of unprecedented scale and brutality in modern times on Gaza, resulting in widespread destruction, thousands of deaths, and the displacement of countless families. Essential infrastructure, including medical facilities, water, and electricity, has been severely damaged, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

The international community has failed to stop this, and the attacks come in the context of decades long and violent occupation by Israel, recognized as apartheid.  

The impact of climate chaos on women

Countries in the Global South—those least responsible for climate pollution—bear a staggering 75% of the costs of climate impacts. These regions face intensified weather events, economic strain, and increased migration pressures, all which compound poverty and inequality. Women are particularly impacted by the effects of climate chaos. They are 14 times more likely to die in climate disasters than men and the greater the gender and economic inequality, the greater the disparity between men and women’s chances of survival. Additionally, 80% of those displaced by climate disasters are women.

The issue of Gender-based violence

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains central feature across all global crises, including the climate crisis, and continues to be a largely ignored. One in three women globally experience GBV at least once in their lifetime, with a woman being killed by a partner every 11 minutes. This violence intensifies in times of instability, such as during climate disasters, armed conflict, and forced migration.

 The pushback on climate action, human rights based migration policy and women rights

Another trend is a pushback on climate action, human rights based migration policy and women rights. In both the U.S. and Europe, political figures commit to dismantling progressive policies addressing these critical issues. Cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the UK are impacting women and girls in the Global South, reducing support and deepening gender inequality.

 Systemic failures in the Global South

The economic models imposed on the Global South have systematically weakened public services, from healthcare to education. IMF reforms often force these nations to strip back their public sector and open their markets to free trade where they were ill equipped to compete on equal terms. Women are often the ones who bear the brunt of these cuts, as they struggle to fill gaps left by underfunded public services.

Globally, more than 380 million women and girls are currently living in extreme poverty. 1 in 4 women are facing food insecurity. This global economic system has failed women in the Global South most of all. Colonialism left countries stripped of their wealth, and saddled with harmful hierarchies, disproportionate care responsibilities and discriminatory gender norms. 

We need to see ambitious commitment by those who want to take their seat in Leinster House. We urge them to adopt our priorities below and to make them key commitments in their election campaign.

Read our Manifesto asks here

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.