Thank you for contacting me about the climate crisis.
I share your concerns about climate change and the impact it is having across the world. The landmark Paris Agreement of 2015 aims to halt global warming at well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. At COP26 in Glasgow, nearly 200 countries agreed to the Glasgow Climate Pact to keep the aim of limiting temperature rises to 1.5°C alive. In addition, at COP26, the Paris Rulebook was completed, with guidelines as to how the Paris Agreement can be delivered.
At COP27, the UK and other parties agreed to establish a Transitional Committee under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to develop loss and damage funding arrangements. I am assured that the UK Government will work closely with members and other UNFCCC parties to ensure these funding arrangements consider how to support countries at high risk of debt distress from climate related loss and damage. Ministers are committed to making a positive contribution to the committee’s aims and objectives ahead of COP28.
Further, the UK is working closely with African partners to fight climate change, boost resilience, and help those whose lives are most impacted from its effects. The UK supports initiatives such as contributing towards the African Development Bank's Climate Action Window and South Africa's Just Energy Transition. The international community has also been scaling up support in countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia, and in 2022, the World Bank and the African Development Bank announced more than $35 billion of funding for food security across the region.
Finally, I am aware that at the Africa Climate Summit in September 2023, the Minister for Climate and the Environment reaffirmed the Government's commitment to spend £11.6 billion on international climate finance, with approximately 40 per cent of this being spent on Africa.