Charities and activists are calling on the Government to show "global leadership" and press for the introduction of a permanent fund to help poorer countries to tackle climate change at upcoming negotiations.
The calls, made at the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, follow agreement by European Union environment ministers on the bloc's negotiating position at upcoming international climate talks.
COP 27 is being held in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, next month.
Head of Advocacy at Trocáire Siobhán Curran said that "the EU is blocking" the establishment of a 'loss and damage' fund.
"COP27 is an opportunity for Ireland to show global leadership", she told the committee. "Trust has to be rebuilt".
'Loss and damage' relates to the unequal distribution of the destruction being wrought by climate change, which hits poorer nations hardest.
The concept "is still quite vague and not well defined", a briefing note by the European Parliament recently concluded.
In recent days, the parliament has called on EU environment ministers to take a bolder and more supportive stance on the issue.
Denmark has become the first member state to go further than the EU's common position, and has created a loss and damage fund, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore.
"If Ireland's not going to be first, it better be second", Simon Murtagh of Oxfam Ireland, said.
Solidarity-PBP TD Bríd Smith said that Egypt is being run by one of the "most brutal dictatorships" in the world, and that those attending COP 27 must "not give [President] Sisi a free ride".
Mr Murtagh agreed, and said that the next summit will be held in the UAE, where the "same [human rights] concerns arise".
In tackling current energy shortages, Jerry McAvilly of Friends of the Earth expressed "major concerns around any form of LNG", noting that much LNG imported from the US would be fracked.
Head of Policy and Advocacy at Christian Aid Ireland Dr Conor O'Neill warned that Ireland is set to continue to "eat up more than our fair share of the global carbon budget", and to fail to provide its fair share of funding to help poorer nations tackle the crisis.
