Feb 25, 2025
UK aid budget cuts threaten climate finance pledge to vulnerable nations, experts warn
The UK is the latest wealthy nation to announce cuts to its overseas aid budget after agreeing to step up climate finance to developing countries at COP29
Chloé Farand
Editor of Clean Energy Frontier
Editing: Sebastián Rodríguez
The UK said it will cut its overseas aid budget in a new blow to vulnerable nations. The move will make it more difficult for the government to deliver on a promise to increase climate finance to developing countries, analysts have warned.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to slash the UK aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income in order to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.
The UK’s climate finance commitment comes from its aid budget, which was already reduced from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income a year before the country hosted the COP26 climate talks in 2021.
Starmer is due to travel to Washington on Thursday to meet with US President Donald Trump, who has been piling pressure on Europe’s cash-strapped governments to take more responsibility for their own defence.
The decision came as a shock to the international development community, which is still reeling from Trump’s decision to freeze USAID spending and from a string of cuts to overseas development aid by European governments. Germany, Sweden, France, Belgium and the Netherlands have all announced significant cuts to their aid budgets recently.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/02/25/uk-aid-budget-cuts-threaten-climate-finance-pledge-to-vulnerable-nations-experts-warn/
