The UK must place climate change at the centre of aid strategy
and funding if it is to have a meaningful impact on the range and
seriousness of threats facing developing nations as a result of
climate change, a report by the International Development
Committee has found.
The Committee calls on the UK Government to set an example and
provide international leadership to realign the focus of aid
policy, strategy and funding, to place climate change at the
centre. The negative consequences of a failure to act will be so
serious as to nullify the effectiveness of wider aid spending.
The UK’s commitment of spending £1.76 billion on climate finance,
dedicated aid spending for climate change related activities,
should become the annual minimum. UK aid for fossil fuel projects
should end, unless it demonstrably supports transition towards
zero global emissions by 2050.
Committee Chair commented:
“It is welcome that in recent weeks climate change has taken its
rightful place at the top of the news agenda. The scale and
seriousness of the challenge to be confronted must be reinforced
and reflected upon daily if we are to take meaningful steps to
combat it. The Committee on Climate Change report has set out the
measures that need to be taken domestically, but we must also
look globally.
“We cannot simply reflect on what we do at home and think that
will be enough. We must look at how we can provide the best
support to those nations that will face the most serious
consequences of climate change yet have done little to cause it.
“The UK should be in the vanguard of efforts to help prepare the
world’s poorest for the extreme consequences of climate change,
and it must go hand-in-hand with current programmes to alleviate
poverty. We need radical action that places climate change
front and centre of all aid spending and policy decisions, and
dedicated financing to give it teeth.
“The crisis facing us is extreme and we need action from the
Government now.”
Recognising the challenge facing developing
nations
Climate change is not just one of a number of issues that the UK
should address through aid spending, it is the single biggest
threat to stability and wellbeing in some of the world’s most
vulnerable nations. The effectiveness of all UK aid spending is
dependent on whether the international aid community rapidly and
effectively combats the causes and impacts of climate change.
During the inquiry, the International Development Committee heard
grave warnings of the consequences of inaction:
- WWF: Climate
change is already impacting people around the world, exacerbating
poverty and undermining development efforts… If we fail to act on
climate change, any prospect of ending poverty will be far out of
reach.
- Oxfam GB: If
the international community fails to take adequate action to
support the 3.5 billion poorest people around the world who face
increased risk of floods, droughts, hunger and disease, millions
of lives and livelihoods will be lost.
- Marie Stopes
International: If the international community fails to take
action, there is a real risk that progress in international
development over the past decades will begin to regress,
particularly in terms of livelihoods and poverty, human security
and human health.
Climate finance
Climate finance, the money dedicated to combatting the causes and
effects of climate change in developing nations, must be more
than a box ticking exercise. It should be viewed as the cutting
edge of a comprehensive strategy that is outcome-oriented,
time-sensitive and based on the latest climate science.
The UK has committed £1.76 billion on climate finance in 2020/21
and this should become the annual minimum spend and ringfenced in
the upcoming spending review as International Climate Finance. It
should be used to finance programmes and strategies that take a
long-term approach, addressing mitigation and adaptation, with
poverty reduction as the key goal.
Joined up approach
There should be consistency across Government to ensure that all
aid spending is taking the same approach to climate change. All
aid should target reaching net zero emissions, support climate
resilience and place climate change as a key consideration in all
spending decisions.
The consequences of incoherent policy can be demonstrated by
looking at UK Export Finance, which between 2010 and 2016
provided support worth £4.8 billion to fossil fuel projects
compared to a total spend of £4.9 billion on the International
Climate Fund between 2011-17. Supporting the fossil fuel economy
in developing countries damages the effectiveness of the UK’s
approach to combatting climate change and this should be
rectified urgently.
Supporting zero emissions target
The UK should support efforts to pursue net zero emissions by
2050. It is not acceptable for UK aid to be spent on fossil
fuels, unless it supports a transition towards zero emissions
with clear planning for how it will do so and a set timescale by
which it will be achieved.
