Submission from the World Resources Institute to the International Development Committee Inquiry into International Climate Finance, January 19th 2026

Summary of evidence and perspectives from the World Resources Institute

WRI has been a long-standing and grateful recipient of the UK’s international climate (and development) finance. The UK government has been and remains a formidable technical partner in international climate finance, with deep subject matter expertise and a profoundly committed civil service staff.

Recent, sustained cuts have however alas had a material impact on the longevity, reliability and depth of the UK’s (and, as a result, WRI’s) programming in developing countries, including in areas of adaptation, resilience, and nature.

WRI believes it is of vital importance for the UK’s reputation and credibility – as well as a matter of climate justice, in light of the UK’s climate responsibilities – for the government to steady the ship and to set out clear priorities and focus on a major effort of predictable and at scale delivery in the coming few years.

Put plainly, the first priority as a matter of ethics and reliability is for the UK to deliver on the promises (including with respect to quantums of climate finance) that successive Prime Ministers have made at international meetings, such as COPs, over the last 5 (+) years, including at COP26 in Glasgow, hosted by the UK.

WRI argues in this brief submission that a topmost priority for the ICF in the next phase should be to organise the remaining spend around maximising benefits of all investments for people, climate, and nature, adopting an integrated approach wherever possible.

WRI also argues that a strong focus should be on the UK maximising its impact by making use of all the instruments and forms of finance it has at its disposal. This includes working closely with other partners to drive maximum impact in priority partner countries (including through country platforms).

It is also vital that the UK deliver on the ambitious vision and programming that it has set out since COP26 on nature, both in terrestrial ecosystems as well as in the ocean; WRI was witness to the ambitious commitments the UK made in that area, and the leadership it showed at COP26, and considers it very important to uphold that strong vision on nature as part of the overall approach.

Brief context on the World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute was established in 1982 and is a globally recognized non-governmental organisation with a long track record of driving ambitious international action on climate, development and nature. WRI has over 2500 staff, largely situated in key EMDEs in the global south, including China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and the DRC. In addition to its seat of origin in Washington DC, the WRI network has an independent entity in Europe – with about 150 staff, largely split between London and The Hague.

WRI focuses on transforming the human systems that profoundly impact people, nature and the climate. This includes how the world manages food, land and water; produces and uses energy; and designs and manages cities. To enable change at the pace and scale needed, WRI also works to shift the economic, finance and governance structures that shape people’s decisions and behaviours.

WRI and the UK’s International Climate Finance

The UK government has been a vital partner to WRI for over two decades, both through a long track record of grant giving as well as through collaboration in thought leadership, diplomacy, political engagement and convening. In terms of grant giving, WRI has been the grateful recipient of well over 25 million pounds of UK development and international climate finance over the past two decades, including vital grants that enabled WRI to establish a number of its flagship initiatives, such as Global Forest Watch, the Global Commission on Economy and Climate, the NDC Partnership (on whose steering committee the UK government sits), and the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (the Ocean Panel, of which the Prime Minister is a member). 

WRI is currently managing eight grants from the UK government’s international climate finance, tackling issues such as urban air pollution, forest governance, transport, and the ocean, both at the global level as well as in particular countries (including Indonesia, Colombia and Mexico).

Some overarching reflections

WRI is a profound believer in the importance and value of the UK’s international climate finance, and has been deeply concerned by the impact of ODA cuts on the UK government’s ability to deliver on the commitments it has made.

The UK has been a leader in the development sector, not only with its ODA but also in shaping development efforts across sectors for decades. WRI believes that the UK can and must continue to play a pivotal role in shaping international development, nature and climate finance, at this moment of geopolitical re-alignment and diminishing ODA.

One of the biggest barriers to increasing climate, nature and development ambition and delivering results on the ground is finance. International finance is not flowing to the countries and communities that need it the most. These countries will not transition to green growth economies at the speed and scale needed without much needed investment, creating risks to the whole world, including UK citizens.   

Within the current context of ODA/international climate finance cuts (which WRI hopes will be overturned), we have made three broad recommendations to the government.

First, strategically prioritise concessional finance. Global concessional financing has been reducing for a few years, making it an increasingly rare but precious resource. The government should align UK ICF funds squarely behind its commitment to people, climate and nature as interconnected and mutually reinforcing goals, avoiding pressure to scale back on any one of them. Highly concessional finance could be focused on the poorest and most vulnerable countries and investments with a high social and environmental but low commercial return. Middle-income countries could be supported by less concessional lending and instruments that derisk and mobilize private investment. The UK’s expertise and bilateral grants could focus on transformational, upstream policy influence and mobilizing other finance.

Second, the UK could press for far bolder reform of the international finance system. The multiplication effect the UK government already gets from MDBs could be even more significant. More radical reform of both the MDBs and fragmented, bureaucratic and siloed climate funds is needed, from merging balance sheets to fully harmonizing requirements. The UK could find allies in the Global South in the drive for a smaller number of more coherent funds which are better capitalized and which have modernized governance structures, enabling easier access to climate finance, as well as greater efficiency, impact, and true uptake of locally led approaches.

In this context, the UK should support Special Drawing Rights reallocation, Global Solidarity Levies, debt resolution and domestic resource mobilisation. It could champion regulatory and credit risk reform, cross-jurisdictional financial rules and standards, reformed OECD rules on capital mobilisation and deeper domestic capital markets. The UK could build the case, with middle power economies across the globe, for a re-imagined sustainable trade system.

Third, leverage far more private finance. The UK could turbocharge efforts to increase its use of guarantees; continue to invest in BII (and PIDG), expanding to include a green investment bank (based on a ‘net financial assets’ approach); and build on its innovative tools to leverage the City of London (e.g. through (re-)insurance and institutional investment in sustainable assets). Modernising, joining up and leveraging across this toolkit, including with UKEF, is essential.

It could galvanise support for ‘Country Platforms’, both as part of the Global Clean Energy Alliance and more broadly. These platforms provide a way to back countries with ambitious inclusive green growth commitments, policy and institutional reforms with aligned, programmatic, de-risking finance from MDBs, traditional and non-traditional donors and philanthropists, thereby unlocking private investment at scale.

WRI believes it is in the UK’s interest to uphold its manifesto commitment (and the Prime Minister’s expressed desire) to return to 0.7% of GNI as ODA. WRI also agrees with others that it will be vital to safeguard the budget that remains until (at least) the end of this parliament, with no further cuts, and to continue to strive to bring down and reassign the costs of housing refugees in the UK.

Some specific recommendations:

1. A focus on people, climate and nature in key countries as well as globally: Every country in the world needs to work out how to get onto a different growth pathway, which is low carbon, climate resilient, nature positive and inclusive. This involves complex political processes in every country, an ability to navigate trade, innovation and investment in a fracturing world, and high levels of technical knowledge and capacity. WRI recommends that the UK use its ICF to build a coalition of countries (potentially north and south) and partners taking a systemic approach to their economic transition. This could start with resilience and build broader support through outcomes at key international moments, including the UK G20 and next two COP Presidencies. This could bring benefits to both UK goals and the building of ‘modern partnerships’ at a time of contested relationships. Linked to this, WRI would recommend that the government’s proposed ‘future of development cooperation’ summit work towards people, nature, climate goals in a more integrated way, thinking of climate, development and national finance, public and private, in a more coherent way, including with a strong focus on making strategic use of scarce concessional finance.
2. Mobilisation of private finance: Deepening the mobilisation of private finance will be crucial to delivering progress on clean energy, nature and resilience, given the trillions involved, the potential for returns and declining public finance in the global north and south. This has been a longstanding strength of the UK and there is much to build on, including the EMDE Investor Taskforce, work on transition plans, transition finance and insurance, and the UK’s ability to deploy a range of development finance tools, from PIDG, BII and Mobilist to leveraging its shareholding with the MDBs. Over the coming years, WRI recommends that the UK continue to use its ICF to support country-led ‘country platforms’, as a route to making strategic use of scarce concessional finance and mobilising private finance at scale. This could be linked to ICF spend on NDC investment plans and/or other climate finance strategies. We also believe the ICF should be used to support broader work with UK investors and the City of London to unlock barriers to mutually beneficial investment in EMDE transitions, leveraging private finance, including using programmatic approaches to ensuring finance can work as a system, including through country platforms. This could include green finance taxonomies, where the UK private sector has a strong track record of working on taxonomy development in partnership with the global south.  
3. Nature: it is often easy for the vital importance of major investment in the protection and restoration of nature (both on land and sea) to be overlooked in decision-making about international climate finance. But it is also true that the UK has a long and distinguished track record in this area; and also that the UK made a series of significant commitments on this agenda at COP26, which it has a duty to fulfil. There are strategically important natural systems in the world that are simply too big to fail, in terms of the critical role they play in ensuring the resilience of the global economy, society, and food security. It is therefore vitally important that the next phase of decision-making on international climate finance drives major investment in nature protection and restoration, at scale. This should include the UK being able to play a full part in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility that it helped to create (but which it has so far not invested in).  But it also encompasses other biomes (and communities) on land and at sea.