Recommendation 55

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