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IRELAND IS HARBOURING a dirty fossil fuel secret, and it’s time we confronted it. While we may not drill for oil, mine coal, or produce gas, Ireland has become a tax-friendly financial gateway for some of the most destructive industries on the planet, making us complicit in fuelling the global climate emergency.
A new report released today, titled The Hidden Truth: Ireland’s Role in the Global Fossil Fuel Industry and based on research by ActionAid Ireland and Trócaire, reveals that as of June 2024, an astonishing €31 billion in fossil fuel investments were held by Irish-based financial institutions. Even more disturbing, 91% of that investment is tied to companies actively expanding fossil fuel operations in direct defiance of international scientific consensus on the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
Trócaire and ActionAid witness the unequal impact of the climate crisis in the communities we work with every day, who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, despite contributing the least to its causes. This is a profound climate injustice. Devastating floods, storms, cyclones, droughts, famine, biodiversity loss and ecosystem breakdowns are having a disastrous impact on the lives of billions of people worldwide.
Climate disasters leave a litany of human rights impacts as livelihoods are destroyed, including disproportionately harming young girls and their access to education. 12-year-old Miriam from rural Guatemala and her family had their income decimated by a recent drought, which destroyed their crops. Miriam was due to go to secondary school, an hour drive away, but her parents cannot now afford the €5 a week for the bus that would take her there.
Fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — account for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and nearly 90% of carbon dioxide emissions. They are the primary driver of climate change. But for investors, they remain staggeringly profitable, both for companies and their investors. That’s why billions continue to be funnelled through Ireland to the very companies accelerating planetary collapse.
Our report names some of the financial heavyweights with significant fossil fuel-related holdings domiciled in Ireland. The top three firms are: BlackRock (€18.4 billion), State Street (€4.3 billion) and Crédit Agricole (€2.1 billion).
Ireland’s status as a conduit for climate-wrecking capital is the result of deliberate policy decisions and the outcome of our Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) model and weak national and EU regulations.
The Irish government argues that financial flows are regulated under EU directives. But these frameworks are woefully inadequate. They focus on transparency and minimal incentives for greener investments, not on curbing fossil fuel financing. Even those modest rules are now under threat, as the European Commission rolls back green finance and corporate sustainability initiatives, just as global fossil fuel use and emissions reach record highs.
Far from transitioning, the fossil fuel industry is entrenching itself, and so are its investors. Our report reveals that BlackRock, which had over €18 billion in fossil fuel investments routed through Ireland in 2024, is also pulling back on previous sustainability pledges.
There is no credible path to climate justice if financial flows to fossil fuels, including those channelled through Ireland, are not stopped. This means direct regulation of financial institutions, requiring them to adopt and implement transition plans aligned with the Paris Agreement.
Ireland has both a responsibility and an opportunity to lead. By ending its role as an enabler of destructive fossil fuel investments and regulating investment through a lens of human rights and environmental due diligence, we can begin to put justice and sustainability at the centre of our financial system.
Given its position as a hub for multinational financial institutions, we are calling on the Government to regulate the private financial sector to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement and end our outsized role as an enabler of fossil fuel investment. This includes prohibiting investments in projects that expand coal, oil, and gas production, as well as investments in the companies behind the expansion.
Ireland should also introduce a strong gender-responsive national human rights and environmental due diligence framework that contributes to a global just transition. Such a law should include the regulation of investors with respect to human rights and the environment and climate.
Globally, we should support the creation of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to halt expansion and ensure a fair, funded global phase-out of fossil fuels. In addition, new taxes at both the EU and national levels can mobilise funds for climate justice, including wealth taxes, climate damage taxes on investors, and levies on aviation and shipping.
And we can support debt cancellation and advocate for a UN framework for sovereign debt to give countries on the frontline of the climate crisis the breathing room to address the crisis.
Currently, the climate crisis is accelerating faster than political action to curb climate breakdown. Without urgent structural transformation, including a rapid global phase-out of fossil fuels, the world is on track for 2.6°C to 3.1°C of warming by 2100. Scientists have warned that this trajectory would be catastrophic, rendering vast regions uninhabitable.
Ireland has the power to become a leader in climate justice. We can no longer afford to look away while billions flow through our financial system into the industries destroying our planet. It’s time to stop fuelling climate chaos and to start building a future that’s fair and sustainable for all.
Caoimhe de Barra is CEO of Trócaire and Karol Balfe is CEO of ActionAid Ireland. Both INGO’s support communities in the Global South impacted by climate change, and campaign for climate justice.
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Google can set up shop here and pay (almost) no corporation tax on hundreds of millions of profits, but I as an SME owner have to pay the full rate on tens of thousands profit. A multi-billion dollar US investment fund can set up shop in Ireland and pay (almost) no tax, but if I want to invest in the very same fund as an individual I pay punitive tax rates of almost 50%. Something is rotten in the state of Ireland.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: your right but as long as there are poorer countries around the world the threat that the multinational could move there we are in a weak position .Money is the controlling power
@SkepticalHippoEyes: There is a belief amongst politicians and senior civil servants in this country that we must genuflect before America corporations while simultaneously screwing all available funds from EU supports to the MSME sector.
They have gotten away with it up to now. However that particular chicken (or even turkey!) may be about to come home to roost.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: And good luck to you mate. This country needs people like you to survive and thrive.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: The facts are we are a wee little island on the edge of Europe with terrible weather. What this means is we have to attract companies in by doing what other are not doing, in this case low corporation tax. If these companies go we are Greece without the weather, back to the 80s everyone broke and on the dole…..if you want to go back there well good luck to you but I say no thanks! Its a pity that our corrupt government have not created a balanced society with costs controlled but that is down to corrupt governance which unfortunately the majority are happy to go along with.
@FlopFlipU: there are countries around the world similar size to us that have built up their own industry, rather than relying entirely on FDI. Estonia and Israel have a very substantial home grown tech sector for instance, whereas the majority of our tech sector is dominated by US firms. I’m not against them being here or trying to attract them into the economy, but we just need someone like Trump in the US to change the policy there, and they will out because that is where the majority of their marker already is – it’s like expecting relationship commitment from a no strings attached fling.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: What’s rotten is the parties that have controlled this state for too long…The Dail needs fresh air and parties that represent the people not corporations
@Joe Vlogs: Israel is bankrolled by the states and Estonia are you having a laugh there?…..its the eurozone’s poorest country.
@Joe Vlogs: some one like Trump!!! If that were to happen say goodbye to any public health care that is in the country at the moment. If you could not afford a doctor you would be dead! In fact any public funded benefits would be gone
@Peter Hughes: Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Greece all have GDP per capita lower than Estonia, so, no, Estonia is not the Eurozone’s poorest country.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: any Irish domiciled Google company pays 12.5% on its profits. If it doesn’t make any profits they don’t pay tax. The same methods to not make a profit in Ireland are open to you.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: by the way google Ireland paid an effective tax rate of 26% in 2019. Much higher that your effective tax rate I’d imagine.
@SkepticalHippoEyes: why are people so obsessed with corporation tax. CT makes up a small amount of overall tax intake. What about all of the people these companies employ who pay income tax and then the company pays employer PRSI. They also pay VAT!
@Peter Hughes: As a commentator above commented, Estonia is in no way the Eurozone’s poorest country, and is where many internationally renowned companies started, including TransferWise, Bolt and Skype. Israel also has plenty of tech startups, such as Wix, Viber, Mindspace, Waze and Gett. The difference is both countries have policies to grow domestic startups as opposed to trying to attract startups into the country from abroad.
Also, it is ‘it’s', not ‘its’.
We are a tax haven for multinationals.
They would not be here otherwise.
@Vladimir Macro: if those multinationals up sticks and moved to poorer countries, we would be in deep trouble. I’ll get over the tax part, they employ thousands upon thousands of Irish people that contribute to the economy. Not to mention the indirect companies that provide supplies and services.
@Linda Daly: If they did maybe we’d start working to make the country better. Be a first, in 100 years but it’s be great to have some sustainable ‘supplies and services’ to take us into the next century, right now I don’t see it, and it wont happen when we’re all focused on middle managing some pharma for a shiny new Passat.
@Linda Daly: and? One guy shouldn’t pay his fair share of tax because he creates business opportunities and employment..?…. youre making it out like he/they are the only ones. And if they werent there youre implying there’d be no opportunities or employment? Irish sme’s will never get the chance to become bigger and/or give more employment and/or opportunities when they are made to foot the tax bills of the elite. Emergency legislation across the western world filtered tons of cash toward giant corporations once again so their profits have rocketed through the lockdown while the rest of us live on the real world. Neo liberal nonsense in my opinion and so many like to support it. Any wonder the gap between us and them grows bigger by the day when their supported by so many
@thesaltyurchin: Like we did in the 80s?…..you have not got a clue what you are on about, you live in a land of the leprechauns lol.
@Linda Daly: if unions had that power that government would send in the cops. Can they not just pay their way like everyone else? Is that so hard?
Slightly aside. It galls me that these big multinationals work the system in order to pay little, or no, tax. During the lockdown I tried to buy a couple of DVD’s for the kids. The usual default to Amazon quoted a delivery charge of 260 pounds. I used an Irish supplier, they were cheaper and delivered quickly via An Post. All parties paying tax along the way. Same for some books I wanted to read. We overlook that there are small Irish businesses, all paying tax that we should be supporting.
Instead of that we fund a man that wants to go to the moon but won’t contribute to that hospital bed you might need someday. We buy shiny new phones from a company that (arguably) owes is 13 billion in unpaid taxes, the list goes on and on. If all these paid tax share, the PAYE workers could pay less
@Bob Murray: 260 pounds? Did you ask them to deliver it to the moon?
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Jeff probably would have done that for free! But, no, usual delivery to the home address. How that company (and many others beside) took advantage of Covid is awful. I expect the 260 pounds was just another one of those attempts.
@Bob Murray: then tell your government:
Have you phoned your TD.
The problem with the Irish voter right there. They think it all happens in a vacuum
@Bob Murray: I presume you do not try to minimise your tax liability by availing of any tax credits or relief that you are legally entitled to.
@Bob Murray: what were you doing on amazon in the first place If you are so moralistic and anti big companies.
Looking for a cheap bargain to save you some money instead of paying the higher price to a local business. Breaking your own rules…
@Bob Murray: buy amz prime you muppet
@Bob Murray: I tried to buy a computer chair mat from ikea during lock down 19.99 for the mat and they wanted 50 euro to deliver it
@Bob Murray: I tried to buy a computer chair mat from ikea during lock down 19.99 for the mat and they wanted 50 euro to deliver it and I live local
@Kathryn O Reilly: the ikea delivery charge is always 50€, also if you buy a sofa
I thought the multinationals were here for our young educated workforce and the weather because FF/FG keep telling me we are not a tax haven.
@Willie: we are not a tax haven. Just have a very low and easy to navigate tax system.
Unless all the members of IBEC calling for a change to 1m have suddenly acquired medical or epidemiological qualifications then they need to pipe down. There may well be a case for changing it but we don’t need them “lobbying” for it. There may also be a need for some ongoing financial support for businesses who open adhering to the 2m rule to “top up” their income or a way to reduce their overheads further until they are able to safely open to more customers. I totally support getting the economy opened up but it needs to be done in line with the science.
MNC are here not solely here due to tax. This is just absurd and if whoever says that clearly has no experience of working in one. Ireland offers just top of my head:
- Educated English speaking workforce.
- They are very cheap who are willing to work long + flexible hours
- Excellent timezone to support all regions.
- Easy lobbing at government level.
- Excellent climate for data centers.
- Myriad of other grants that they can avail.
@Z Exotic: The tax rate goes they would be gone tomorrow and the country with them…..lets not fool ourselves now.
@Peter Hughes: The FG “Fear Team” out again today I see.
@Jack Cass: Sadly not… if we are more expensive than other countries those multinationals would go. They usually only lease their buildings and could move.
The other EU countries could barely compete and therefore often poking at the tax.
We can be happy that Malta seems stuffed atm…
@Peter Hughes: maybe, but we have some other advantages as well. Some of which are mentioned above. We also don’t have archaic outlooks on business like Germany and France and the legal system fits well with the US.
This is spot. People defend 12.5% tax religiously, as though it provides some benefit to them, when to the contrary, it costs you more in income tax.
If we take MNCs are their face value, that they would leave if the rate went up at all (though dubious — you’re not exactly going to *admit* “we’d stay until 15%”), this shows the huge danger of overdependence on MNCs who can up and move at will. Just look at 2008 when everyone else had to take their medicine and pay more for less. Unless of course you’re an MNC because raising corporation tax would be sacrilege.
@Gerard: if they paid 12.5% that would be wonderful as opposed to 0.005 % paid by Apple or 0% paid by Starbuck and they’re merely an example of the tax avoidance thats ongoing…not to mention the vulture funds who also pay no tax on profits or indeed the Banks who will pay no tax on profits.Fg have no interest in Joe soap as they live, wine,dine and cavort with the big shots who have their ear 24/7.
@paul gurney: they do pay 12.5%. You understand that 12.5% is applied on your profits. If you don’t have any profits you don’t pay tax. Most of the MNCs make sure they generate the majority of their profits on Ireland to pay 12.5% rather than the extortionate rates in other EU countries. Those other EU countries operate crazy socialist models where lower earning employees pay higher taxes than in Ireland. In business terms a lot of other EU countries live in the dark ages.
IBEC has already cost this country lives in the name of profits and wants that trend to continue ..FG love it…
More lobbying from people who have a vested financial interest. Not biased at all…
@Natalka Mayo: social distancing in the public is definitely at 1m at the moment putting it down to 1m would just result in people ignoring it all together.
Danny McCoy is a clown he is still at this stage comparing the coronavirus to the flu so disrespectful to the families who have lost love ones to covid.
@Seamus Bridgeman: you realise that people lose loved ones to the flu every year?
@Joe: flu and a chronic lung infection are not the same. Professor Mallon said they are getting lots of caeses of people coming back in who only had mild covid and are now showing poorer lung capacity and heart problems… The worlds best minds reckon we now only know 60% about covid and its dangers. But McCoy reckons comes winter we wont be able to tell the difference between covid and flu.
We could reduce to one metre at the start of Phase 3 if all is going well. It is less than 3 weeks, it would give us a chance to fully knock this on the head like New Zealand. .
Short-term ism of ibec will bankrupt the economy for circa ten years when with four more weeks we could crush covidcand be cleanig pp financially. Wait and see they will be hoist on their own petard.
Ibec – a registered Trade Union who continually oppose any suggestion that the firms they represent should recognise and negotiate with Unions representing employees.
All IBEC is interested in is increasing the profits of its members.There experts at putting on the poor mouth.I’ll love to know how much Danny McCoy earns.
Ibec are geebags tbh
Ibec willing to take responsibility for any necessary deaths as a result?
Only if IBEC knew what they were doing !!
Only if IBEC knew what they were doing !!
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