The UK Foreign Secretary, The Rt Hon David Lammy MP, was at COP29 in Baku this week to push for global action to tackle the climate crisis and preserve the natural world.
Lammy held conversations with senior figures and leaders from countries including Colombia, Kuwait and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He also co-hosted a side event with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley and led another on advancing forest tenure rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities as guardians of forests and nature.
Lammy committed to a new initiative supporting forest tenure rights for Indigenous and local communities across the Amazon Basin, who play a vital role in protecting forest areas. £9.1m has also been made available to local scientists working to protect the Congo Basin, home to the world’s largest tropical peatlands to help protect vital natural CO2 storage areas.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office says that the Foreign Secretary underscored the UK’s commitment to halting and reversing deforestation, to protect areas which play a key role in absorbing CO2 emissions. This includes announcing partnerships aimed at improving forest management and a new 10-year investment to reduce illegal logging. The programme will build on long-running UK initiatives to improve the governance of forests, support the trade of sustainable forest products and crackdown on illegal ones.
Public finance alone is not going to finance the global transition, and the mobilisation of private capital plays an important role to tackling the challenge. This is why £100m of funding will also be given for British International Investment’s (BII) new Mobilisation Facility, which will drive up to £500m of private capital into investments that support other countries in their transition towards net zero.
The Foreign Secretary also announced a guarantee of $280m (around £220m) to the new IFCAP initiative, which the UK is a founding partner of together with the Asian Development Bank and the other financing partners. The UK’s guarantee contribution will unlock $1.2bn of additional climate finance, at no upfront cost to the UK.
The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said, “The climate and nature crisis is the defining challenge of our times, which is why we are working with other countries to tackle the issue at its root. Britain is back as a leader on the climate crisis because this is how we motivate global action to deliver security and clean growth at home, as well as protect our planet for future generations.
“That is why we are doubling down on our support to protect and restore forests, and the communities that depend upon them, around the world. We are also boosting funding to help countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.”
The last government’s commitment to £11.6bn of climate finance from 2021/2022 to 2025/2026 will continue to be honoured. This includes at least £3bn on nature, from which £1.5bn will be dedicated to protecting and restoring forests.
Between April 2011 to March 2024 UK International Climate Finance has directly supported over 110 million people adapt to the effects of climate change, and help avoid over 105 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The announcements build on Britain’s ambitious pledge to build a Global Clean Power Alliance. This will see Britain working with partners around the world to accelerate country transitions to affordable and clean energy and help secure a liveable plant for future generations.