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More than 90 UK civil society organisations from environment, international development, education, trade union, disability inclusion, trade, humanitarian, business, and faith groups have written to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak today to demand that he keeps his promise on climate finance.
Catherine Pettengell, Executive Director of Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) the organisation that coordinated the letter, said:
“Today’s letter from 92 civil society organisations in the UK demonstrates the strength and breadth of support for UK climate finance. This government must not turn its back on countries and communities least responsible for the climate crisis but suffering its worst impacts. True leadership means taking responsibility for the UK’s historical emissions and the wealth that has been generated and giving back fairly, to secure a better future for everyone.”
In response to recent claims that the UK government has “effectively abandoned” its commitment to provide £11.6bn climate finance between April 2021 and March 2026, civil society groups are calling for the government to fulfil its commitment and urgently demonstrate how it will be met.
“Given recent reports that the FCDO would find it a “huge challenge” to meet the commitment within current budgets, we need more than empty promises from the Prime Minister, we need a concrete and transparent plan as to how the commitment will be met in full and on time, and in a way that does not come at a cost to other important ODA priorities,” said Ms Pettengell.
Katie White, Executive Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at WWF-UK, said:
“Failure to invest in climate action now is the definition of a false economy. The future health of our planet should not come down to horse-trading between Government departments but should be the driving purpose of all parts of government.
“This further undermines the UK’s reputation as a strong leader on climate and nature, in the same week as global temperature records were broken and the Government’s own climate watchdog found that commitments are going backwards and ambition is plummeting.
“We urgently need our leaders to recognise nature is in crisis and to deliver on the nature and climate promises made to bring our world back to life.”
Sophie Rigg, Head of Policy and Research, Climate and Humanitarian, ActionAid UK, said:
“That the Prime Minister is considering reneging on our climate finance commitment lays bare the UK’s lack of integrity and failure to act as a global leader on climate, just two years after hosting COP26. Sticking your head in the sand and willing climate change away is a deadly mistake, we must fight this crisis with finance and brave leadership. Breaking this commitment to spend £11.6 billion on slowing climate change and adapting the planet to its impacts is an enormous breach of trust for the countries already facing the devastating consequences of the climate crisis.
The UK has reaped financial rewards from its high-polluting economy over the past century and has a historical responsibility to address climate change. Instead of taking much-needed development and humanitarian funds, we need new and additional climate finance that recognise the scale of this crisis.
At a time when trust in global climate negotiations is at an all-time low, the UK’s failure to keep its promises is putting the entire future of the COP process at risk”
Sophie Powell, Christian Aid’s Chief of UK Advocacy, said:
"This is a desperately short-sighted and shameful betrayal of those facing the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Breaking our long-held promises and tearing up years of agreed climate diplomacy are the actions of a reckless Government.
"Climate finance is not a handout, but a debt we owe to vulnerable countries for the damage we have caused through burning fossil fuels. It is not aid and should never have come from the aid budget in the first place.
"A UK government that wants to be taken seriously by global South countries, which is essential to keeping global climate talks on track, will need to rebuild the country’s climate credibility by mobilising additional public finance to meet our international climate obligations, whilst accelerating the journey to net zero at home. Taxing polluters would be the best place to start."
Champa Patel, Executive Director of Government and Policy at Climate Group, said:
“It’s absolutely crucial that Rishi Sunak sticks to the £11.6 billion in climate finance pledged in Glasgow less than two years ago. Climate finance is not just a moral obligation, it’s an essential catalyst for global climate action. Rather than withdrawing money promised to communities on the climate frontline, the UK Government should be focused on meeting its net zero targets, accelerating the shift to renewables and urgently phasing out fossil fuels.
Alistair Dutton, CEO of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF), said:
“I strongly urge the Prime Minister to urgently affirm that the international climate finance targets will not be reduced or delayed.
“Reneging on this long-standing commitment would send a signal to the world that the UK cannot be trusted to do its part on climate change. It will enrage governments in the Global South who rely on this money to develop greener economies, and is also a betrayal of the UK’s allies in the Global North who know climate finance is needed to achieve the Paris Agreement.”
Tearfund’s Head of Advocacy, Paul Cook, said:
“The outrageous claim that climate finance money should be spent elsewhere on humanitarian priorities is misleading. Climate finance should be new and additional to international aid specifically to prevent this from happening in a context where extreme weather related disasters are on the rise.
Cuƫng funding for reducing emissions and adapting to live with climate impacts is dangerously short-sighted and undermines global efforts to save lives.
‘When wealthy and high carbon emiƫng nations fail to step up to their climate responsibilities, it hurts us all but people in poverty most. Rishi Sunak’s government still has time to keep the UK’s longstanding promise to low-income countries and communities of £11.6bn by 2026 in climate funding. Failing to keep this promise would be a miserly betrayal that will cost lives and livelihoods. It would be a backwards step for international cooperation at a time when working together is more crucial than ever.”
David Westwood, Director of Policy and Programmes at World Vision UK, said:
“World Vision UK continues to witness the impact that climate change is having on those least responsible for the crisis, including children, women, and others most at risk of being left behind.
“It is imperative that the Government remains committed to the £11.6bn aid pledge for international climate finance, as well as its other international development commitments, including the International Women & Girls Strategy, to ensure that every child can thrive in a healthy, secure environment, and have a future that is sustainable.
As noted by Shania, aged 15, from Tanzania, children are “the least responsible for climate change but the most affected by its impacts. Governments of all countries need to take bolder decisions and act quickly and decisively, and they need to do it NOW.”
Kirsty Smith, CEO of CBM UK and Basic Needs said:
"People with disabilities, especially those living in poverty, are on the frontline of the climate crisis.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recognised that they are between two to four times more likely to be impacted by climate change than those without disabilities. It is imperative therefore that the UK Government fulfils its £11.6 billion target commitment of climate finance contributions by 2026, and demonstrate transparently how this will be met. Not doing so will leave behind some of the world’s most marginalised and send a signal that the UK Government has failed on its stated climate ambition."
The full letter is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B3G1g9j2TbKbrtFwvMFvufZRPGCUYun7CGmz09lzh8/edit?usp=sharing
Notes to editors:
Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) is the UK node of CAN, a global network of more than 1,900 civil society organisations in over 130 countries driving collective and sustainable action to fight the climate crisis and to achieve social and racial justice. climatenetwork.org
CAN-UK brings together civil society organisations in the UK working on the poverty-nature-climate agenda to advocate for climate justice and sustainable development for all.
Catherine Pettengell is available for interviews and can be contacted on cpettengell@can-uk.org and +44(0)7967 494760
The full text of the letter to the Prime Minister reads:
Dear Prime Minister,
Successive UK Prime Ministers, including yourself, have stood on podium after podium and declared the UK a global leader on climate action - promising net zero by 2050 and £11.6bn in climate finance over five years from 2021 - and urging other countries to do more to address this global crisis.
The existential threat we all face due to climate change can only be tackled with global cooperation - and progress that we all benefit from can only be achieved when there is trust that promises made will be kept.
At COP27 in Egypt in November, you stood up and said "it is morally right to honour our promises, but it is also economically right too" - and we wholeheartedly agreed. Yet last week the Climate Change Committee revealed that the UK is off course to deliver its promised emissions reductions, and now it is reported that your government may break its promise on climate finance too.
As 92 UK civil society organisations working across environment, international development, humanitarian response, inclusion and rights issues, we are writing to urge you to keep your promise to communities on the frontline of the climate crisis to provide £11.6bn in climate finance between 2021/22 and 2025/26, and to urgently demonstrate how this commitment will be met.
Climate finance is a vital component of the Paris Agreement, without which limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C will not be possible; without which the devastation of climate change will cost countless lives and livelihoods around the world for those least responsible for causing the climate crisis and cause irreversible damage to the ecosystems on which they depend; and without which meaningful international cooperation on climate action would collapse.
The world cannot afford such tragedies from short-sighted decisions.
While fossil fuel companies in the UK enjoy record-breaking profits, it is impossible for the world to comprehend claims from this government that the UK cannot afford more than 0.5% of gross national income to contribute towards global efforts to address poverty, nature degradation and loss, and climate change. This government has chosen to cut Official Development Assistance (ODA) while at the same time drawing on it for climate finance, which civil society has repeatedly warned is both unsustainable and unjust. This double counting puts climate finance in direct competition with other vital non-climate ODA priorities and is not in the spirit of the UN agreement to provide new and additional climate finance to countries least responsible for causing the climate crisis.
Climate finance is not a handout, but a debt we owe to countries and communities that have been made vulnerable to climate change, while the UK has benefited from burning fossil fuels. We have a historical responsibility to address the harm caused and to play a leading role in financing a global just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels and towards resilience. This is not aid and climate finance should not have come from the ODA budget in the first place. It is also in the UK’s enlightened self-interest to prevent further climate breakdown.
The UK’s credibility on the global stage now hangs in the balance, and we urge you to demonstrate how the £11.6bn will be met and live up to your own words from COP27:
“By honouring the promises we made in Glasgow and by directing public and private finance towards the protection of our planet, we can turn our struggle against climate change into a global mission for new jobs and clean growth and we can bequeath our children a greener planet and a more prosperous future. That’s a legacy we could be proud of.”
Yours sincerely,
Catherine Pettengell Executive Director, Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK)
On behalf of CAN-UK and the following UK civil society organisations:
- Action Against Hunger 2. ActionAid UK 3. Action For Humanity 4. Awel Aman Tawe 5. Bond 6. BRAC UK 7. Bretton Woods Project 8. CAFOD 9. CARE International UK 10. CBM UK 11. Cardiff Quakers 12. Christian Aid 13. Climate Action Network UK 14. Climate Cymru 15. Climate Group 16. Climate Outreach 17. Climate Shop 18. Clynfyw Care Farm 19. Community Energy Scotland 20. Concern Worldwide UK 21. Co-production Network for Wales 22. Debt Justice 23. Development Initiatives 24. Egni Cooperative 25. Environmental Justice Foundation 26. Environmental Investigation Agency 27. Fairtrade Foundation 28. Fair Trade Wales 29. Faith for the Climate 30. Fauna & Flora 31. Fern 32. Ffynnone Community Resilience 33. Friends of the Earth 34. Global Action Plan 35. Global Citizen 36. Global Justice Now 37. Global Witness 38. Green Economy Coalition 39. Greenpeace 40. Green Squirrel 41. Humanity & Inclusion UK 42. Institute of Development Studies 43. International Alert 44. International Institute for Environment and Development 45. Islamic Relief UK 46. Keep Scotland Beautiful 47. Labour Behind the Label 48. Link Education 49. Make My Money Matter 50. Mercy Corps 51. Mighty Earth 52. ONE 53. Oxfam GB 54. Plan UK 55. Pontypridd Land Society 56. Possible 57. Practical Action 58. Primus of the Scoƫsh Episcopal Church, the Most Revd Mark Strange 59. Quakers in Britain 60. Railway Children 61. Rainforest Foundation UK 62. Ribble Valley CAN 63. RSPB 64. Save the Children 65. SCIAF 66. Scotland’s International Development Alliance 67. Scoƫsh Communities Climate Action Network 68. Stamp Out Poverty 69. Stop Climate Chaos Cymru 70. Stop Climate Chaos Scotland 71. Sustainable Wales 72. Tearfund 73. The Climate Coalition 74. The Mentor Ring 75. The One Planet Centre 76. The WI 77. Tir Natur 78. Transform Trade 79. Tree Aid 80. UNICEF UK 81. UNISON 82. UpliŌ 83. WaterAid 84. Water Witness 85. WCS 86. Welsh Centre for International Affairs 87. Whale and Dolphin Conservation 88. World Vision UK 89. WWF-UK 90. Zero Hour 91. ZSL 92. 350.org