Published 13 November 2024
Last updated 14 November 2024 — See all updates
The Foreign Secretary was at COP29 in Baku (12 November) to push
for global action to tackle the climate crisis and preserve the
natural world.
While at COP29, the Foreign Secretary held bilats and brush-bys
with senior figures and leaders from countries including
Colombia, Kuwait and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also
co-hosted a side event with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia
Mottley and led another on advancing forest tenure
rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities as
guardians of forests and nature.
At COP29, he committed to a new initiative supporting forest
tenure rights for indigenous and local communities across the
Amazon Basin, who play a vital role in protecting forest areas.
£9.1 million has also been made available to local scientists
working to protect the Congo Basin, home to the world's largest
tropical peatlands to help protect vital natural CO2 storage
areas.
The Foreign Secretary underscored the UK's commitment to halting
and reversing deforestation, to protect areas which play a key
role in absorbing CO2 emissions. This includes announcing
partnerships aimed at improving forest management and a new
10-year investment to reduce illegal logging. The programme will
build on long-running UK initiatives to improve the governance of
forests, support the trade of sustainable forest products and
crackdown on illegal ones.
Public finance alone is not going to finance the global
transition, and the mobilisation of private capital plays an
important role to tackling the challenge. This is why £100
million of funding will also be given for British International
Investment's (BII) new Mobilisation Facility, which will drive up
to £500 million of private capital into investments that support
other countries in their transition towards net zero.
The Foreign Secretary also announced a guarantee of $280 million
(around £220 million) to the new IFCAP initiative,
which the UK is a founding partner of together with the Asian
Development Bank and the other financing partners. The UK's
guarantee contribution will unlock $1.2 billion of additional
climate finance, at no upfront cost to the UK.
The Foreign Secretary said:
The climate and nature crisis is the defining challenge of our
times, which is why we are working with other countries to tackle
the issue at its root. Britain is back as a leader on the climate
crisis because this is how we motivate global action to deliver
security and clean growth at home, as well as protect our planet
for future generations.
That is why we are doubling down on our support to protect and
restore forests, and the communities that depend upon them,
around the world. We are also boosting funding to help countries
most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
The last government's commitment to £11.6 billion of climate
finance from 2021/2022 to 2025/2026 will continue to be honoured.
This includes at least £3 billion on nature, from which £1.5
billion will be dedicated to protecting and restoring forests.
Between April 2011 to March 2024 UK International Climate
Finance has directly supported over 110 million people adapt
to the effects of climate change, and help avoid over 105 million
tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The announcements build on our ambitious pledge to build a Global
Clean Power Alliance. This will see Britain working with partners
around the world to accelerate country transitions to affordable
and clean energy and help secure a liveable plant for future
generations.
Background
- the Foreign Secretary confirmed the UK will meet its
commitment to the current Indigenous Peoples and Local
Communities Forest Tenure Pledge (IPLC). This is £163 million
between 2021 to 2025
- the UK is giving a further £10 million to the Global
Environment Facility's Special Climate Change Fund to provide
adaptation finance to Small Island Developing States
- the UK will provide £5.3 million to the Pacific Catastrophe
Risk Insurance (PCRIC) to make sure more Pacific countries have
the insurance they need in place before catastrophic weather
events
