Poverty reduction and the SDGs will not be achieved without dedicated climate finance, says Bond in response to International Development Committee latest report

Today, the International Development Committee has found that major changes in Government aid strategy are needed in order to meet the scale of the Global Climate Emergency.

Bond’s Development and Environment Group provided evidence to the International Development Committee during the consultation process of their recent enquiry; UK aid for combating climate change.

Claire Godfrey, Head of Policy and Campaign at Bond, the UK network for NGOs said:

“We strongly welcome the IDC’s finding that the climate change emergency is huge in scale, intensity, and urgency, and that it will be the least developed countries and the most vulnerable people who will be hit first and worst, therefore all efforts to address poverty must now be consistent with climate change.

The UK’s support to the most climate change vulnerable countries needs to be stepped up through dedicated and transformational climate finance, that is focused on targeting the world’s poorest people who bear the brunt of climate change most. Climate change also needs to be mainstreamed throughout all government decision-making to avoid wasted investments and to ensure that we are pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C – both at home and abroad. This means immediately ceasing to use UK export finance and UK aid for fossil fuels and agreeing to maintain UK commitments to international climate finance at a minimum floor of £1.76bn per year from 2020 in this year’s spending review, and explore innovative sources of public finance such as the Climate Damages Tax to ramp up support.

Poverty reduction and the SDGs will not be achieved without stepping up dedicated climate finance oriented in the most vulnerable countries, as well as fundamentally altering how we do development in order to address the triple crisis of poverty, environmental degradation, and climate change.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The International Development Committee’s report UK aid for combating climate change will be launched on Wednesday 8th May 2019. Media queries to George Perry: [email protected] or 020 7219 2099.
2. Bond’s Development and Environment Group is made up of NGOs working to increase understanding of the linkages between poverty and environment, and advocate for policies that support sustainable development that benefits people living in poverty. The group includes Oxfam, Christian Aid and WWF.
3. Bond is the UK network for organisations working in international development, including Save the Children, Oxfam and Christian Aid. Bond unites and supports a diverse network of over 400 civil society organisations and allies to help eradicate global poverty, inequality and injustice.
4. For further information or interviews with the report authors, please contact Maryam Mohsin on 07555 336029 or [email protected]