Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 105
Fulfil pledged funding commitments, continue diplomatic efforts, and restore UK domestic forests.
Recommendation
Decisive action must follow these commitments if the Kunming-Montreal goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and the commitments of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration and subsequent COP agreements are to be met. The UK must lead by example, fulfilling its pledged funding commitments, continuing its diplomatic efforts to keep issues of deforestation and nature prominent in global discourses and restoring and conserving its forests at home.
Government Response Summary
The government affirms its commitment to invest at least £1.5 billion in UK International Climate Finance, demonstrating it is on track to deliver this funding pledge. It provides detailed figures on current and future forest programming, including new funding announcements at COP28 for programmes like the Amazon Fund and IFSLU.
Paragraph Reference:
105
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The government remains steadfast in its commitment to invest at least £1.5 billion UK International Climate Finance to protect and restore forests while delivering sustainable development over the ICF3 period (April 2021 – March 2026). We are on track to deliver on this commitment. Over financial years 2021–22 and 2022–23 (the first two years of ICF3), we have spent around £345m on forest programming (ref. Table 1 below) and continue to work to develop a robust pipeline of programmes and investments to deliver the remainder of our pledge by the end of ICF3. This also forms our contribution to the Global Forest Finance Pledge (GFFP), a commitment made by donors at COP26 to deliver $12 billion (£8.75 billion) to support forest protection, restoration, and sustainable management over 2021 – 2025. At COP28, we announced £576 million new forests programming, of which £466m will deliver support beyond ICF3. This included a £35m uplift in UK support for the Amazon Fund, and up to £500m for the second phase of our flagship Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use (IFSLU) programme over the next ten years, which we expect to mobilise £2 billion in private investment, directly benefit half a million people – mainly smallholders and poor rural communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – and protect and restore forests across an area of 10 million hectares. The UK remains committed to transparency across our ODA support, the UK, together with GFFP partners, publishes a summary of progress made against delivering our collective $12 billion pledge annually in the Global Forest Finance Pledge Progress Report. Please find in Figure 1 below detail of UK ICF forest spend over financial years 2021–22 and 2022–23. Note – this list is non-exhaustive and includes only programmes that disbursed monies over these two years.