Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 34
34
Accepted
Paragraph: 119
Unclear if recent deforestation funding announcements are additional to previous commitments.
Conclusion
Whilst the Committee welcomes recent funding announcements to tackle deforestation, it is unclear whether these are in addition to the £1.5 billion previously committed to in the Global Forest Finance Pledge.
Government Response Summary
The government clarified that it remains committed to the £1.5 billion pledge, and announced £576 million in new forests programming at COP28, with £466 million of this committed for support beyond the current ICF3 period, including a £35 million uplift for the Amazon Fund and up to £500 million for the IFSLU programme.
Paragraph Reference:
119
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
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.