Reactive comment: Chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP

5 July 2023

Media reports have indicated that the Government may be planning to drop the UK’s £11.6 billion international climate finance target.

Chair's comment

The Chair of the International Development Committee, Sarah Champion MP, said: 

“It is deeply concerning to hear that the Government’s commitment to meet its £11.6 billion target of climate finance contributions by 2026 is being called into question. The Government has repeatedly reiterated this 2019 pledge as evidence of the UK’s ambitions and its leadership on climate change.

“These reports comes in the wake of last month’s damning report from the Climate Change Committee on the Government’s progress on reducing emissions, which concluded that ‘the UK has lost its clear global leadership position on climate action.’ At a time when the Foreign Secretary is talking about building links with the Global South through ‘patient diplomacy’, this abdication of leadership constitutes a massive own goal for Britain and our credibility.

“The decision would have serious implications for people’s lives in those parts of the world most vulnerable to climate change. Our new inquiry is learning from the experience of Small Island Developing States, where climate change has caused an increase in the frequency and impact of climate-related hazards - such as hurricane Maria, which wiped out 226% of Dominica’s GDP in just a few hours in 2017. Catastrophic events that used to be once in a lifetime occurrences are becoming the norm.

“These promises are not just numbers. The UK’s failure to deliver on this commitment would jeopardise the wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable people. Whilst I understand the budgetary pressures faced by the Government in the wake of the pandemic and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, it is outrageous that aid spending has been deprioritised so significantly.”