The UK will invest in clean energy projects in Egypt and Kenya as well as fund rainforest protection in the Congo basin as a step to support countries most affected by climate change, as reported by Bloomberg on November 7. Britain’s new prime minister Rishi Sunak has pledged GBP65.5m (USD75.7m) investment to the Clean Energy Innovation Facility, which funds researchers and scientists in developing economies to accelerate clean technology development. The Sunak government will also give GBP90m (USD104.0m) of grants to the conservation of the Congo Basin’s forests, which provides essential environmental products and services to 30m inhabitants and is home to many endangered species. In addition, the UK will expand its clean energy projects in Kenya and Egypt by mobilizing investments from the public and private sectors. 

The UK’s new package of climate support came amid the opening of the COP27 climate summit, where global leaders discuss measures to combat global warming. At the conference, leaders from poor countries criticized wealthy governments and oil companies for being the main drivers of global warming and called for more international funds to help them adapt to climate change. Britain’s foreign minister James Cleverly, who is attending the COP27, also committed more than GBP100m (USD115m) to support developing countries in fighting against climate change, as part of the UK’s promise to triple its funding for climate adaptation from GBP500m (USD577m) in 2019 to GBP1.5bn (USD1.73bn) in 2025. According to the latest research from Carbon Brief, the UK is one of the developed nations with the largest financing gap between current climate funding contribution and “fair share” contribution (as measured by their share of total historical emissions), falling short by USD1.4bn in 2020. 

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-06/sunak-spends-on-african-climate-projects-before-heading-to-cop27?srnd=green&leadSource=uverify%20wall

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-pledges-more-than-115-mln-developing-economies-tackle-climate-change-2022-11-07/

https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/cop27-small-island-nations-want-big-oil-pay-up-climate-damage-2022-11-08/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-announces-major-new-package-of-climate-support-at-cop27

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-us-falling-32bn-short-on-fair-share-of-100bn-climate-finance-goal/