International climate policy

Ahead of COP 30, where host country Brazil’s Presidency has set a strategic goal to transition from “negotiation to implementation”, the Committee is launching a call for evidence in a major new inquiry on UK climate policy and finance. Climate change is a global problem that requires a global response. The world is now experiencing … Show more

Ahead of COP 30, where host country Brazil’s Presidency has set a strategic goal to transition from “negotiation to implementation”, the Committee is launching a call for evidence in a major new inquiry on UK climate policy and finance. Climate change is a global problem that requires a global response. The world is now experiencing the increasingly severe impacts of a rapidly heating climate with intense wildfires, severe droughts, and heavy rainfall leading to destructive floods more frequently and over a wider range. The 2015 Paris Agreement represented a significant moment of international coordination to reduce emissions and to adapt to climate change. But the UN recently announced that global action has failed to limit global heating to the 1.5 degrees agreed there. In 2022, the IPCC warned that “any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future”. The UK became the first country in the world to make a legally-binding national commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions in The Climate Change Act 2008. In 2019 the UK was the first major economy to enshrine its commitment to Net Zero by 2050 in law. At COP 29 in Baku last year, the agreed target for climate finance flowing to developing countries was increased from $100 billion to at least $300 billion a year by 2035, with an aspiration for that to hit $1.3 trillion per year over the same period, in recognition of the scale of the challenge. And in 2022, the latest data available, developed countries delivered around $116 billion – over that target - to developing countries for climate action. But the global political consensus on climate change, the financial sector’s commitment to action on climate and climate diplomacy have all been impacted by tensions and transformations in the global order. The UK Government has stated “there is no global stability without climate stability”, that the UK “must play its part by resetting at home and reconnecting abroad”, and has placed an emphasis on re-establishing the UK “as a climate leader on the global stage”. It committed to meet the previous Government’s pledge of providing £11.6 billion in international climate finance between 2021 and 2026 - but beyond March 2026 the approach is unclear. Through this inquiry, the Committee intends to investigate how the Government can best demonstrate international leadership on climate policy. Show less