Comments on UK climate finance pledge

Rachel Kyte, Dean Emerita of The Fletcher School at Tufts University:

“Walking away from our promises undermines climate action and our standing in the world. Breathtakingly short sighted, it undermines collective action; one day when we need support - on climate induced migration, on security - there will be an eerie silence.

“Climate change is a global challenge. Financing action that benefits all of us is a responsibility that falls to the industrialized world. Climate finance is money better spent than funding the aftermath of disasters in humanitarian or securely spending. This latest decision of a decaying Tory government will have consequences far beyond our public accounts.”

Camilla Toulmin, Senior associate at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED):

“Global Britain has an important role on the world stage. It doesn’t go unnoticed when we’re not present, as was the case in Paris, when the Prime Minister chose not to attend a critical global meeting last month on reforming international finance to support developing nations with the growing climate crisis.

“If we follow that up by cutting our commitment to financial support for those nations, then we leave the space on the global stage open for bad actors – for Russian mercenaries who turn up to Central African nations with their offers of support instead, for example. Wealthy countries promised $100bn a year by 2020 – three years on, that has not been delivered. What price promises if we break them? We harm the trust of developing nations in the UK, therefore our geopolitical influence and ultimately therefore our nation’s security and national interests.”

Professor Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero:

“The IPCC warned this year of worsening climate impacts, with nearly half the global population exposed in climate impact hotspots. The UK’s promise in 2019 to double its climate finance was valuable leadership ahead of COP26 to bring other nations along to live up to wealthy nations’ promise to support poorer countries to adapt to those impacts, and recover from climate disasters. With the global promise of $100bn a year still not delivered, it would be deeply disappointing for the UK to step back from that leadership, and renege on promises made to the people most vulnerable to climate impacts”

Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International Programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU):

“This was a genuinely world-leading commitment in 2019, when the UK was set to host COP26 and was pressing other wealthy nations to step up and meet the promised $100bn a year for developing nations by 2020. With that pledge not met, the UK only harms its own interests if it steps back from its share now.

“Not only does cutting climate finance threaten people’s lives and livelihoods in the countries that need it, it puts our own crucial supply chains at risk. Half our food comes from overseas – half of that from areas most vulnerable to climate damage. All the science shows that we need to cut emissions to net zero by mid-century to avoid even worse impacts, but that the world needs to adapt to the impacts we already experience at 1.1°C of heating. Poorer countries need our help to do that, and to be able to continue to grow the food we buy from them.”