PRESS RELEASE : Greens urge Sunak to come clean on climate finance [November 2022]

The press release issued by the Green Party on 7 November 2022.

The Green Party has called on Rishi Sunak to come clean and reveal the shortfall in UK climate finance. At COP26, Boris Johnson pledged to boost spending on supporting the nations most at risk from the impacts of the climate emergency. However, figures suggest the UK has only paid £1.3bn of the £2.3bn a year pledged and the government has refused to reveal exactly how much it has short-changed the countries in greatest need [1].

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:

“Ahead of Rishi Sunak’s speech to COP27 this afternoon, we call on the government to come clean and reveal exactly how far short the UK has fallen in its contributions towards climate finance – a crucial fund to support those poorer countries on the front line of the climate crisis but which have done little to contribute to the problem.

“It is suggested that the UK may have short-changed the fund by a whopping billion pounds. But let’s see the figures.

“What we do know is that collectively the rich nations have consistently failed to meet a $100bn annual target on climate finance, and that the UK government is party to this failure. We also know the government has raided the overseas aid budget to pay for climate finance when it pledged that it would be additional money. And the aid budget itself has already been cut from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP.

“The Prime Minister must use his speech today to pledge he will deliver the UK’s overdue climate finance. The whole COP process risks failure unless richer countries deliver climate justice by paying their fair share. Any claims of global leadership by Rishi Sunak will sound hollow when we are failing to meet our own promises to the countries most affected by the climate crisis.”

Notes

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/cop27-climate-finance-sunak-johnson-b2218057.html