The UK has already caused consternation in developing countries hardest hit by the climate crisis after Downing Street said Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, would not attend Cop27 because of his focus on domestic issues. Britain is the current holder of the Cop chairmanship and will hand over to Egypt in November. The United Kingdom missed a September deadline to provide $288 million to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) dedicated to helping developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate impacts, Politico reported. A separate pledge of $20.6 million made by the UK to the adjustment fund has yet to be paid. Both funds support projects in the developing world, where people are suffering most from a climate crisis they did little to cause. At a GCF board meeting last month in South Korea, developing countries expressed concern about the implications of the UK’s failure to deliver on its promises, according to observers. Board notes from the October meeting indicated that three projects approved by the fund will now be put on hold due to a “lower than expected volume of contributions from contributors”. Clare Shakya, director of the climate change group at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said the failure to deliver was “very, very bad timing”. “This is in the context when Cop26 was about rebuilding trust. The UK has pushed every other country to do what it can to increase climate and adaptation finance. “And now, even before Cop27, the engineers of the confidence-building exercise are reneging on their own promises. It is such a strong negative message to developing countries that rich nations should not be trusted,” he said. Shakya predicted “absolute chaos” in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, where the summit will be held from November 6 to 18. “Everyone will be looking for strong statements and increased accountability for rich countries to keep their promises.” Erika Lennon, who represented civil society organizations for developed countries at the GCF meeting in October, said: “It is worrying whenever a country does not meet its commitments. Developing countries urgently need this funding, as we have seen from the climate impacts around the world.” It was of “grave concern” that three projects had to be put on hold because of a lack of cash, said Lennon, who is a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law. Subscribe to Global Dispatch Get a different view of the world with a collection of the best news, features and images, curated by our global development team Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “The funding proposals have already gone through a long development process. They have been identified as urgent and beneficial to a country or several countries in terms of priority for climate change mitigation or adaptation. Some countries have expressed concern about this.” The annual UN climate summits are designed to help governments agree on measures to limit increases in global temperatures. The Egypt conference will focus on three key areas: reducing emissions, helping countries prepare for and coping with climate collapse, and securing technical support for developing countries. Last week, the UK’s aid chief questioned where the $100 billion a year promised to combat the effects of global warming on the poorest countries went, and called for more transparency on climate finance. “The truth of the matter is that we are trying to figure out where the climate money that was promised a decade ago is,” said Martin Griffiths, the UN’s under-secretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency aid coordinator. “Where is it? Who keeps it and who doesn’t deliver it to places like Somalia?” said Griffiths. The UK has cut its overseas aid budget from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%, with reports last weekend showing how much of the aid budget for poor countries is being spent at home in the UK , much of it for housing refugees from Ukraine. The Foreign Office declined to comment on its climate finance commitments, but is expected to brief the GCF board on its payment schedule soon.
