ONE response to UK breaking pledge on climate finance

Yesterday, it was revealed that the UK Government is set to break its pledge on climate funding for developing countries.

In response to the climate finance pledge being broken, Romilly Greenhill, UK Director of The ONE Campaign, said: “Yet again the UK Government seems to be turning its back on the biggest global problems, and eschewing the long term solutions needed to tackle them. 

“Climate change needs sustainable and coordinated funding to tackle, not sticking plasters, broken promises and endless excuses. Not only does this short-sighted attitude let down the world’s most vulnerable people but it also makes it harder for people everywhere to rise to the challenge of climate change. That’s bad for the world and bad for Britain.”

Part of the cause for concern is how this is indicative of a wider lack of transparency in how the UK aid budget is meeting its commitments.

Greenhill continued: “It’s deeply troubling that this indicates a wider pattern, and the lack of transparency over funding in many areas of the aid budget is concerning. To show they’re serious, to fix this the Government must publish annual ICF disbursement data and issue a forward-looking roadmap for the ICF.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

• In answer to a recent parliamentary question, Question 182184, the Minister outlined that the UK spent over £1.4 billion ICF in 2021/22. However, if the £11.6 billion commitment were to be equally allocated across financial years, the UK should be spending around £2.3 billion per annum.
• There has been limited transparency around UK ICF disbursement. There is no annual breakdown, or year-on-year forecast for UK ICF. The Government does not set annual ICF targets, and this has allowed for serious delays and the backloading of payments.
• UK ICF is a badge, and it is applied to programmes that have a climate element. For example, a programme aimed at women and girls could still count as ICF if it meets one of the following indicators: People supported to better adapt to the effects of climate change, people with improved access to clean energy, social institutions with improved access to clean energy, people whose resilience has been improved, Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced or avoided, clean energy installed, deforestation avoided, ecosystem services generated or protected, public finance mobilised for climate change purposes, private finance mobilised for climate change purposes, transformational change or sustainable land management practices.