1Introduction
1.It is now nearly four years since the international community came together in Paris in December 2015 under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and agreed collectively to limit average global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, and to ‘pursue efforts’ to limit warming to 1.5°C.1 Since then, a growing body of scientific evidence has shown with increasing clarity the importance of high ambition and the need for rapid action. In 2018, climate scientists working with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that even global warming of 1.5°C would result in risks to natural and human systems and many of these risks would be greater at 2°C.2 Currently, commitments under the Paris Agreement would result in global warming of 3°C or more.3
2.It is imperative that the international community recognises and steps up to the task. The IPCC concluded that limiting warming to 1.5°C is still possible but will require “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”.4 The world will need to cut global emissions by 45% by 2030, and achieve ‘net zero’ emissions worldwide by 2050 at the latest.5 Should the world fail, the IPCC report made it clear that it will be “disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods” who will be disproportionately affected by the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C and beyond.6 In March 2019, UN Environment’s sixth ‘Global Environment Outlook’ found that “urgent action at an unprecedented scale” is needed to protect human and environmental health.7
3.In the context of this deeply concerning growing body of evidence of the impacts of climate change, there is heightened public awareness about the consequences of failing to act. In addition to recent protests in London by a range of participants (calling for 2025 zero carbon target and an overseeing “Citizens Assembly”), a new generation is becoming actively engaged and pressing for action. Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year-old climate activist from Sweden, leapt to prominence in 2018 when she spoke at UN climate talks in Poland and later addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019 as well meeting MPs at Westminster in April 2019. Thunberg has inspired mass protests amongst school children in countries around the world, including the UK.8 Young people are raising their voices and calling on their leaders to respond with appropriate urgency to the crisis that will affect their generation more than any that has come before them.
4.Most recently, the Welsh and Scottish governments have both declared ‘climate emergencies’;9 following the example of a number of campaigning local authorities across the UK.10
5.Next year, 2020, is a pivotal year for the Paris Agreement and for international efforts to limit the rise of average global temperatures: the Paris Agreement will become fully operational and the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) plans—plans submitted by each signatory to the Paris Agreement for reducing greenhouse gas emissions—will come into force. Next year is also the ‘ten years to go’ milestone for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the 17 internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UK has historically shown international leadership in advancing both of these vital and deeply entwined agendas, playing an active role both in negotiating the Paris Agreement and in developing and promoting the SDGs. But given what is now known about the pressures and challenges the world is facing on climate change, given the risks that climate change poses to disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, and given what remains to be achieved, how well, in 2019, is the UK stepping up to this global challenge? It is in this context that we launched our inquiry: ‘UK aid for combating climate change’.
Our inquiry
6.In July 2018, we invited submissions on all aspects of UK aid for combating climate change, particularly on the following questions:
- What role can international development play in combating climate change?
- What will the consequences be if the international development community fails to take action?
- How can the UK play an active role in leading the world on this issue?
- How effective is the Government’s bilateral ODA spend on combating climate change? Is it focused on the right countries?
- Is the Government using the right delivery partners for its bilateral ODA spend on combating climate change?
- Does the Government strike the right balance between adaptation and mitigation in its ODA spending?
- How effective are the climate-focused multilateral agencies to which the UK contributes?
- Does the UK give sufficient priority to climate-related issues within its ODA portfolio?
- How can development actors best harness technology to combat climate change?
7.Guided by the written submissions, we held five oral evidence sessions covering a range of issues including: how development programmes can most effectively address climate change, the role of the private sector, the effectiveness of multilateral climate finance, addressing loss and damage from climate change, addressing deforestation, and the coherence of climate action with support for fossil fuels.
8.In November 2018 we also had the opportunity to visit three countries in East Africa: Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. We were able to see first-hand some of the work that the UK aid budget has funded to support low carbon and climate resilient development in these countries, engaging with DFID in-country teams, national and local government representatives, civil society partners, local businesses and beneficiary communities. This followed a visit to Washington DC in June 2018, when we heard directly from the World Bank about their approach to addressing climate change. We are extremely grateful for the assistance, advice and openness that we encountered from all those we engaged with throughout the duration of both visits.
9.Throughout the course of our inquiry we have consulted NGOs, policy institutes, academics, private sector representatives, multilateral organisations, UK implementing partners, beneficiaries of UK climate finance and the UK Government. We have also had the benefit of guidance and advice from two specialist advisers whom we appointed in November 2018, Sam Bickersteth, Executive Director of Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School, and Professor Tim Forsyth, Professor of Environment and Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.11 We are very grateful for their support.
Overview of our report
10.In Chapter 2, we begin our assessment by stepping away from the detail of UK aid spending on climate change to assess the full scale of the challenge that the international community is facing. What role should aid donors specifically be playing in rising to the challenge of climate change and what will the consequences be if they fail to do so? We look at whether the Government has fully internalised these realities in its broad approach to addressing climate change.
11.In chapters 3 and 4 we then home in on the portion of the UK aid budget that has been ringfenced specifically for addressing the causes and impacts of climate change, known as International Climate Finance (ICF). The UK has committed to spending £5.8bn of overseas development assistance (ODA) between 2016/17 and 2020/21 as ICF. This is an increase on the £3.87 billion that the UK provided for climate finance from 2011/12 to 2015/16.12 ICF is delivered through the Department for International Development (DFID), the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).13 In 2016 7.8% of the UK’s total £13.4bn ODA spend was international climate finance.14 We ask: Is this allocation of UK aid to climate finance sufficient? Is it being spent as effectively as it could be? Are the strategies and approaches that the departments have adopted for spending international climate finance appropriate?
12.Chapter 5 looks beyond the ringfenced ICF budget to examine the extent to which the rest of the UK’s £14bn annual aid spend is climate sensitive. We also consider UK non-ODA spending in developing countries and consider how far this is consistent with the aims and objectives of ICF. Is ICF spending potentially being undermined by wider UK ODA and non-ODA spending? How can support for fossil fuels in developing countries remain consistent with the need to support low carbon development?
13.Finally, in Chapter 6, we consider the role that the UK has played and is playing as a leader on the global stage. The UN Secretary General’s upcoming Climate Summit in September 2019, where the UK is leading on the ‘resilience’ stream of the discussions, provides an ideal opportunity for the UK to push the international community to raise its game on crucial aspects of climate action. The annual Conference of the Parties (COP), which the UK is bidding to host in 2020, also provides an important international forum. We identify some key areas where the UK can, and should, press for progress.
1 UNFCCC (2015) The Paris Agreement
3 See https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/07/climate/world-emissions-paris-goals-not-on-track.html
4 https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1–5c-approved-by-governments/
8 School climate strikes: 1.4million people took part, say campaigners, The Guardian, 19 March 2019
9 Monday 29 April 2019, see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-48093720 and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48077802
10 There is no legal framework, nor scientific consensus, on what exactly constitutes a ‘climate emergency’. See https://climateemergency.uk/blog/list-of-councils/
12 Department for International Development; the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (CCC0023)
13 DFID spends approximately 63%, BEIS 34% and DEFRA 3% of the ICF budget.
Published: 8 May 2018