Select committee: International Development Committee
Conclusion 55
Second Report - Global Britain in demand: UK climate action and international development around COP26
Published 26 Oct 2021
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
International Development Committee Climate change, development and COP26 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In its biennial progress report (December 2020), the Government stated that: Our funding will be new and in addition to our previous £5.8 billion ICF commitment.118 Many contributors criticised this statement for its interpretation of ‘new and additional’.119 The NGOs that wrote to us would prefer climate finance to be in the form of new and additional financial resources by high-income countries above the commitment to 0.7% ODA. The Government’s broader interpretation of ‘new and additional’ has become 110 Q17 [Diann Black-Layne], Q41 [Gebru Jember], Q60 [Catherine Pettengell]. In line with the United Nations, we define climate finance in quite broad terms as “the money which needs to be spent on a whole range of activities which will contribute to slowing down climate change and which will help the world to reach the target of limiting global warming to an increase of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. See: UN News, The trillion dollar climate finance challenge (and opportunity), 27 June 2021 111 OECD, Climate finance for developing countries rose to USD 78.9 billion in 2018, 6 November 2020 112 OECD, Climate Finance Provided and Mobilised by Developed Countries in 2013–18, p.42, 6 November 2020 113 Roberts, J.T. et al, Rebooting a failed promise of climate finance, Nature Climate Change, Volume 11, p.1, 18 February 2021 114 Roberts, J.T. et al, Rebooting a failed promise of climate finance, Nature Climate Change, Volume 11, p.1, 18 February 2021 115 Roberts, J.T. et al, Rebooting a failed promise of climate finance, Nature Climate Change, Volume 11, p.1, 18 February 2021; Shakya, C. and Smith, B., Trust in climate finance requires meaningful transparency, IIED, January 2021 116 UNFCCC, Report of the Conference of the Parties on its fifteenth session, held in Copenhagen from 7 to 19 December 2009, Addendum, Part Two: Action taken by the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth session, p.7, 30 March 2010 117 UNCTAD, https://unctad.org/system/files/official-docu
From: International Development Committee, Second Report - Global Britain in demand: UK climate action and international development around COP26 (HC 99), 26 October 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 January 2022 (deadline 26 December 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response to the Committee's report is mostly 'Partially agree', with 'Agree' on two recommendations, while declining the Committee's 31 January 2022 deadline for a locally-led adaptation pathway.
- On locally-led adaptation, it says it "agree[s] that locally led adaptation is critical" but is "not able to agree" to submit a pathway by 31 January 2022, citing the need to work with others, in particular Egypt as incoming COP27 Presidency. It "will report on progress by 31 March".
- On climate finance access, it agrees and says it is working to update the International Climate Finance Strategy and "aim to publish this by April 2022". It is not "proposing a simplification of the criteria for LDCs and SIDS per se", but a streamlined accreditation approach.
- On fossil fuel exemptions, it partially agrees, stating the exemptions are for "a small number of situations" and are "necessary to make this policy work in the real world". BII is developing a carbon budget and "will share this information with the Committee in due course".
- On a Climate and Development Minister, it partially agrees, stating there is "already strong ministerial oversight for this policy area", with Lord Goldsmith holding responsibility for climate and environment.