This is an excerpt from today’s edition of the Journal’s COP26 newsletter which brings you all the important updates from the big climate summit. Journalist Orla Dwyer, who is on the ground in Glasgow, will detail the latest developments each evening during the two-week event. Find out more and register here or at the bottom of the page.

There is a lot of politics in the air around Glasgow today as the two-day summit of world leaders began at the COP.

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin was the star of the show for us Irish journalists – and for some British journalists who came to his informal press briefing earlier to ask questions about Brexit.

I asked the Taoiseach how much Ireland would commit to funding to help developing countries deal with climate change and its (many) impacts.

Developed countries pledged in 2009 to provide $ 100 billion per year in funding starting in 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change. It has not yet become a reality – it is already postponed to 2023 – and it is a key sticking point for this COP summit.

Micheál Martin said Ireland will commit to more than doubling its current global climate finance to € 93 million by 2025. That means up to € 225 million per year by 2025.

The Government Program has already committed to doubling this funding, but this is an increase of about 140%.

Martin has had a pretty busy day today – meeting with Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron, and also speaking at a world leaders event earlier.

We will soon know with the publication of the revised climate action plan whether Ireland’s action will also be sufficiently strengthened.

I could stay here all day telling you what the heads of government said and didn’t say, but instead I’d like to share what Kenyan climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti told world leaders this afternoon.

She said: “Right now, as you sit comfortably here in this conference center in Glasgow, over two million of my fellow Kenyans are facing climate-related famine.

“It’s not just happening in Kenya… and there is more to come. By 2025, in just four years, half of the world’s population will face water scarcity and by 50 years, the climate crisis will have displaced 86 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

“If you allow yourself to feel it, grief and injustice are hard to bear. Sub-Saharan Africans are only responsible for half a percent of historic emissions. Children are not responsible for anything. But they are paying the price.

“The decisions you make here will help determine whether the rains will return to our lands. The decisions you make here will help determine whether the fruit trees we plant will live or perish. “

The COP organizers deliberately put the voices of those who will be most affected by the climate crisis at the forefront during the summit – those who have the most to lose from any lack of action in the years to come and years to come. above.

Were the politicians attentive?

Bulletin by Orla Dwyer

This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant program from the European Parliament. All opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are those of the author. The European Parliament has no involvement or responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.