UK must reverse aid cut to help poorer countries tackle climate crisis, charities warn

The British government is being urged to reverse its overseas aid cut to ensure that poorer countries are receiving the support they need to help tackle the climate crisis.

While the UK has doubled its climate aid to £11.6bn, it has faced scrutiny after slashing its overall aid budget from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of GDP in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The cut to aid, charities have warned, could have a negative impact on other countries’ own efforts to combat the climate crisis.

And now, as finance ministers from the G7 group of major economies prepare to meet in London later this week, non-profits are calling on Boris Johnson’s government to reverse the aid cut.

In the lead-up to the G7 summit in Cornwall in June, Boris Johnson has said he hopes to secure a “substantial pile of cash” to go towards combating climate change ahead of the widely anticipated COP26 climate summit in November.

The PM has already called on the global community to deliver on a more than decade-old promise to dedicate $100bn (£70bn) a year of public and private finance to aiding developing countries by 2020.

As it stands, rich countries appear to be about $20bn (£14bn) short of reaching that target.

However, charities warn that is not enough, asserting that countries like the UK have a responsibility to help ensure that poorer nations are also able to contribute to the fight.

Christian Aid is among the groups calling for the change, with the organisation urging an increase in the amount of climate money dedicated to poorer nations.

The funding, the aid agency has said, would not only help countries contribute to combating the climate crisis, but is also necessary to help nations adapt to increases seen in heatwaves, storms, flooding and other outcomes affecting communities around the world.

The organisation has said the G7 should come up with a new deal to help pay for the damages caused by the climate crisis and help cancel debt for poor countries that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

In a statement, Jennifer Larbie, Christian Aid’s UK advocacy and policy lead, warned that “getting an agreement at COP26 requires trust and richer nations have so far failed to live up to their side of the bargain”.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Adow, director of African climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said he believed “finance is the missing piece of the climate problem”.

“It’s the key that will unlock greater emissions reductions and bring help for those on the front lines,” he said, asserting that “the UK has a key role to play in this considering that it has shamefully cut aid for the world’s poorest people in the middle of a global pandemic in a year it is hosting two summits which are essential in helping the world’s vulnerable people”.

“It’s particularly galling to see this aid cut when rich nations have failed to deliver on their promised climate finance,” he said.

Adow said the UK restoring its aid budget would be a good first step towards ensuring progress is made at the G7 and COP26 climate talks.

The UK, however, is not the only country facing pressure to increase its financial climate commitments.

Joe Thwaites, an associate at the US-based World Resources Institute, said he felt Joe Biden’s vow to double spending to $5.7bn a year was less ambitious than the US leader’s domestic climate agenda.

“Prime Minister Johnson needs to remind Biden that climate leadership requires leading,” Thwaites said.

“To catch up with leading donors after the last four years, the US needs to move twice as fast, doubling their current climate finance pledge to $11.4bn annually by 2024,” he said.

If countries like the UK and US do not take further action, “developing countries risk facing a cascade of crises”, said David Ryfisch, team lead for international climate policy at Germanwatch.

“The G7 needs to respond to these crises,” he said.

The first step to that, Ryfisch said, is acknowledging that even $100bn annually “in support for climate simply falls short of what is needed”.