G20 Summit in India: UK to provide $2 billion to fight global climate change

In its biggest single funding commitment, the UK on Sunday said it would provide $2 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help tackle global climate change.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is in New Delhi for the two-day G20 Summit, said the contribution would help the most vulnerable people around the globe to adapt to the impact of climate change.

"The UK is stepping up and delivering on our climate commitments, both by decarbonising our own economy and supporting the world's most vulnerable to deal with the impact of climate change," Sunak told the G20 leaders. "This is the kind of leadership that the world rightly expects from G20 countries. And this government will continue to lead by example in making the UK, and the world, more prosperous and secure.”

Established by nearly 200 countries following the Copenhagen Accord at COP15, the GCF plays a key role in funding projects aimed at tackling climate change.

“Today’s pledge represents a 12.7 per cent increase on the UK’s previous contribution to the GCF for the period of 2020-2023, which was itself a doubling of our initial funding to establish the fund in 2014,” according to an official UK government release.

The British government had rubbished a report a few weeks ago that the country was planning to drop its flagship climate funding pledge. Since 2011, UK climate aid spending has helped over 95 million people cope with the effects of climate change and reduced or avoided over 68 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

“This goes hand in hand with the UK’s domestic leadership transitioning to clean forms of energy,” said Sunak. “The UK has cut emissions faster than any other G7 country, with low carbon sources now accounting for more than half of our electricity. We saw renewables generate a record 47.84 per cent of UK electricity in the first three months of 2023 and output from wind, solar and hydro reached a record high last year. Last year, we saw the biggest increase ever in the installation of offshore wind capacity, with the UK home to the four largest working wind farms in the world.”

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