ActionAid Ireland expresses “deep concern” at threats of intensified strikes on Gaza at a time when much needed aid is finally getting through

October 23, 2023

ActionAid Ireland today expressed its deep concern at threats of intensified strikes on Gaza at a time when aid trucks are finally getting through to the population under siege and desperately in need.

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Karol Balfe, CEO of ActionAid Ireland, said: “On Saturday there was a glimmer of hope as aid finally arrived into Gaza. But what good is 20 trucks of humanitarian supplies if the attacks are stepped up simultaneously? These trucks represented a moment of reprieve for the Palestinian people. The trucks were not seized or diverted, yet now we hear threats of intensified strikes on Gaza.”

Ms Balfe said the protection of civilians and the respect for human rights is paramount.

“Under international law, civilians must not be targeted, and all efforts should be made to minimise accidental deaths and injuries. Hospitals, schools, places of worship, public infrastructure, humanitarian facilities, and shelters must be protected from the fighting and should not be either taken over by combatants or deliberately targeted. The abduction of civilians is prohibited by international law and all civilians held hostage must be released immediately.”

Heartbreaking testimony from Gaza

Meanwhile ActionAid today released heartbreaking testimony from a doctor working in the emergency room of a hospital in Gaza.

The doctor said: “I have volunteered in all of the wars on Gaza. But the ferocity of this attack, I have not witnessed. The only people being targeted are unarmed innocent civilians, the majority being women and children. The bodies are lined up outside the hospital being put into ice cream van until the space is found to bury them.”

Since 7 October, 1,688 children have been killed by the bombardment on Gaza. This means that on average 120 children are dying every day whilst the world looks on. Meanwhile, WHO has documented 111 attacks on health care in the occupied Palestinian territory since 7 October. This includes 48 attacks in Gaza where three hospitals sustained such heavy damage that they are no longer functioning and 63 attacks on health care in the West Bank affecting 58 ambulances.

Journalists killed in Gaza

Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, expressed concern at the risk to the lives of journalists covering the Gaza crisis.At least 18 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October – more than one per day – in a gross violation of international law.

Shesaid: “Palestinian journalists in Gaza put their lives at risk and continue their media coverage in Gaza despite continuous Israeli airstrikes, a lack of protection and safety, disrupted communications, and electricity cuts.

“We appeal to the international community to immediately intervene to investigate the attacks on journalists and media properties in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Attacking journalists is a violation of the right to life and freedom of expression.

“Journalists in Gaza are civilians and they must be protected to continue their work without interference, to enable people around the world to know and understand the reality of humanitarian and political conditions in the Gaza Strip.”

Heading image: A women searches for belongings after bombing by the Israeli army. Photo by AIN media

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.