Taoiseach denies Cop27 is a 'greenwashing' event 

Taoiseach Micheal Martin talks to the media during Cop27 at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has defended the Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt, which has come in for withering criticism from high-profile environmental activists as high-level "greenwashing" and ignoring human rights abuses.

Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg and Guardian environmental political writer George Monbiot have decried the two-week UN-backed event in Sharm el Sheikh.