Ashraf AboArafe
12 January 2020 – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK will commit at least £3bn to climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity over the next five years.
The funding will be allocated from the UK’s existing commitment of £11.6bn for international climate finance and will deliver transformational change in protecting biodiversity-rich land and ocean, shifting to sustainable food production and supply, and supporting the livelihoods of the world’s poorest.
Prime Minister Johnson made the announcement at the 11 January One Planet Summit, a leader-level virtual event convened by France. Addressed a session on Financing for Biodiversity, he called upon other states to raise their level of ambition on funding and to mobilise public and private finance for sustainable solutions to climate change.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and COP26 President Alok Sharma also convened a roundtable on Clean Power Transition with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, bringing together ministers from eight African and European countries.
Foreign Secretary Raab announced that the UK will pledge up to £38m to the Climate Compatible Growth programme, supporting developing countries to accelerate their transition to green energy while growing their economies.
Together, these announcements address the two leading sources of global emissions – electricity generation and land use – and demonstrate the UK’s leadership in fighting climate change ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We will not achieve our goals on climate change, sustainable development or preventing pandemics if we fail to take care of the natural world that provides us with the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. The UK is already leading the way in this area, committing to protect 30 percent of our land and ocean by the end of the decade and pledging at least £3bn to supporting nature and biodiversity.”
COP President Alok Sharma said: “We have seen ambitious commitments from across the world to net zero targets to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. But targets can only be met through action. We must preserve nature and our biodiversity, and move more quickly from coal to clean power. It is fantastic to see billions of pounds pledged to support efforts to reduce deforestation and degradation, and to accelerate the transition to clean energy. By working together, on the road to COP26, we can make faster progress towards a sustainable future for our planet.”
Tackling climate change and protecting nature are closely linked – rising global temperatures and pollution are damaging natural ecosystems, while thriving forests and ocean play a critical role in mitigating climate change. Agriculture, forest loss, and land-use contribute 23 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but land and coastal marine ecosystems could provide up to a third of the climate mitigations needed to meet the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
Today’s announcement on funding for nature is the latest in a series of concrete actions the government has taken to address this crisis.
In September, the UK Prime Minister signed the Leaders Pledge for Nature at the UN General Assembly, an initiative pioneered by the UK and now signed by 82 countries. In addition, the UK has funded the Blue Belt Programme to protect vulnerable ocean ecosystems, and five years ago joined Norway and Germany to pledge at least $5bn to reduce deforestation between 2015 and 2020 – exceeding the target by the end of last year.
The UK is also proud to be working together with Egypt to reduce the effects of climate change. UK and Egyptian partnership at the 2019 UN Climate Summit on adaptation and mitigation brought 118 countries on board. As a regional leader, Egypt will have a key role to play in encouraging other countries to step up their commitment and funding for resilience and adaptation, as we look forward towards COP26 in November 2021.
