-
and the UN Secretary General will host a meeting of
world leaders on climate change in New York today
- PM will tell fellow leaders more has to be pledged to help
developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change
- UK will spend an extra half a billion pounds to phase out
coal, move to clean energy and adapt to climate change in
developing countries
The Prime Minister will use a meeting of world leaders at the UN
today to warn that more must be given by rich economies to
support developing countries’ transition to net zero.
Ahead of the Paris Agreement developed countries committed to
mobilise $100 billion a year from 2020 to support developing
countries cut their carbon emissions, minimise the impact of
climate change and adapt their economies to deal with its impact.
While international support for tackling climate change has
increased hugely since 2015, developed countries have
collectively failed to reach the $100 billion target – last week
the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilised in 2019.
There has been some recent progress. All G7 countries have
committed to enhance contributions in the next five years,
including scaling up finance for adaptation and nature. At the G7
Summit in June, new pledges amounting to $4 billion per year in
additional finance were made by major economies.
With fewer than 50 days to go until the UK-hosted COP26 Summit,
the Prime Minister will ask world leaders to build on the work
that has already been done and get public and private finance
flowing so that the climate finance target can finally be met.
The leaders attending today’s meeting, both virtually and in
person, are from both the world’s richest economies and those
countries most vulnerable to climate change.
The UK has already committed £11.6 billion in international
climate finance over the next five years, twice the previous
five-year commitment. Today the Prime Minister has announced that
£550 million of this will be allocated to support developing
countries to meet new zero by adopting the policies and
technologies needed to end the use of coal and create a cleaner,
greener planet.
Prime Minister said:
“In coming together to agree the $100bn pledge, the world’s
richest countries made an historic commitment to the world’s
poorest – we now owe it to them to deliver on that.
“Richer nations have reaped the benefits of untrammelled
pollution for generations, often at the expense of developing
countries. As those countries now try to grow their economies in
a clean, green and sustainable way we have a duty to support them
in doing so – with our technology, with our expertise and with
the money we have promised.”
£350 million of funding announced today will go to the Climate
Investment Funds – one of the world’s largest multilateral funds
working to pilot and scale climate solutions in developing
countries. This includes support through the Accelerating Coal
Transition programme, which seeks to accelerate closures of
coal-fired power stations, repurposing sites for clean energy
generation and creating green jobs.
The UK is already the largest contributor to CIFs and at the G7
Summit in June the Prime Minister secured an ambition from all G7
leaders to provide an extra $2 billion to the fund’s two new
energy programmes. Today’s announcement represents the UK’s
contribution to that target.
A further £200 million of funding at minimum will go to UK PACT
(Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transition), the UK’s
flagship climate technical assistance programme. UK PACT has been
operating since 2018 in 16 countries with high or rapidly growing
emissions. It provides the UK’s world-leading expertise to
public, private and civil society institutions so that they can
help countries to become low carbon economies – reducing both
emissions and poverty.
These new commitments are a significant step on the path to
delivering the ambition set out by the Prime Minister and other
G7 leaders to help meet the infrastructure needs of developing
countries, particularly in respect to clean and green growth.
Following work with UK PACT, a number of countries have enshrined
Net Zero commitments in law and over $695 million of private
investment has been mobilised for green projects in countries the
scheme supports.
The new funding will allow UK PACT to continue its work and
partner with new countries where the UK’s world-leading net zero
expertise is in demand and can make a big difference in reducing
their carbon footprint.
With this new funding, UK PACT will broaden its offer to
vulnerable countries to help them adapt and become more resilient
to the devastating impact climate change is having globally.
At the end of the UN General Assembly this week the UK will
publish the detail of countries’ climate finance commitments to
date. In response to calls from developing countries for greater
transparency and predictability in international climate finance,
the UK has asked Germany and Canada to lead on developing a
’$100bn Delivery Plan’, to be published ahead of the COP26
Summit. The detail on contributions the UK will publish this week
will be a key component of this Plan, which will outline how the
$100bn goal will be met through to 2025.
