Memo reveals pressure on climate finance pledge

The government looks set to break its flagship £11.6bn climate and nature funding pledge for developing countries, an internal government document seen by the BBC says.

The document details how the government has consistently underspent and would now struggle to meet its 2026 target.

Some 83% of the total overseas aid budget would need to be reallocated to climate to catch up, it adds.

The government has said it remains committed to delivering on the promise.

"The government remains committed to spending £11.6bn on international climate finance and we are delivering on that pledge," a government spokesperson said.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged in 2019 to double the amount spent on the UK's international climate finance (ICF) - aid for vulnerable nations to deal with the causes of climate change - to at least £11.6bn between 2021/22 and 2025/26.

But "subsequent turbulence" - referring to economic shocks such as the Covid pandemic - means the government is lagging behind, the internal briefing paper warns.

Overall international aid spending has also since been cut to 0.5% of GDP, down from 0.7%.

Civil servants have calculated the government would have to spend 83% of the total foreign aid budget on climate to meet the ICF target by 2026, requiring a "reorientation" of the budget on a scale which has "not previously been achieved".

Doing so would also mean that there would be no cash left for other priorities such as projects "specifically targeted at helping women and girls", civil servants write.

It follows Tory peer Lord Zac Goldsmith's resignation from Rishi Sunak's government last week over what he described as the prime minister's "apathy" towards climate change.

In his scathing resignation letter, the now former minister accused the government of abandoning key environmental commitments, including spending £11.6bn of UK aid on climate and environment, and withdrawing its leadership on the world stage.

"Indeed the only reason the government has not had to come clean on the broken promise is because the final year of expenditure falls after the next general election and will therefore be the problem for the next government, not this one," he wrote in his letter.

Mr Sunak insisted Lord Goldsmith had quit after being asked to apologise for comments he made about the Privileges Committee inquiry over the conduct of Boris Johnson and whether he had intentionally misled the House of Commons as PM.

The ICF refers to UK aid given to support vulnerable countries to deal with the causes of climate change, including preventing deforestation and reducing carbon emissions, as well as preparing for its effects.

It forms a part of the global commitment to spend $100bn a year on climate finance for developing countries.