Reporting by The Guardian indicates the UK plans to provide only £9bn over five years for international climate finance from April 2026 (ICF4), a reduction compared to £11.6bn over five years for ICF3. This despite UK ICF commitments previously doubling every five years and the UK playing a significant role at COP29 in 2024 to secure a global agreement to triple international climate finance.
Catherine Pettengell, Executive Director of Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) said:
“If true, this cut to UK ICF is a massive betrayal of communities on the frontline of the climate crisis and of the government’s manifesto commitment to be a climate leader. Rather than cutting climate finance, the UK must substantially increase investment in stability, prosperity, and better lives for everyone – paid for by fairly taxing the wealthiest and largest polluters in our society. This would raise tens of billions of pounds a year for climate action at home and overseas without unfairly costing UK households. With the costs of climate change escalating and seemingly empty promises to triple climate finance globally, this government should be ashamed of its disregard for the plight of those least responsible for climate change while taking no action to collect billions from wealthy polluters.”
CAN-UK calls on the UK government to increase climate finance and pay the UK’s fair share. This is because climate finance is not a handout, but a debt we owe to countries and communities that have been made vulnerable to climate change, while the UK has lifted our own living standards and the wealth of our nation by burning fossil fuels. We have a responsibility to address the harm we have caused and to play a significant role in providing public finance for the global climate action needed.
The government set out in its manifesto commitments to become a climate leader and to create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet – the UK’s provision of international climate finance is absolutely central to living up to these commitments – but just £9bn over five years from the fifth largest historical emitter and the six largest economy on earth falls far short of these commitments and of basic fairness.
The UK has both the responsibility and the capability to take far greater action on climate change at home and overseas. But currently it is communities and countries that are the least responsible for the climate emergency who are paying the cost with their lives, livelihoods, health, homes, lands, ecosystems, infrastructure, and futures. This is an unbearable injustice.
While there are many demands on the public purse, the government has not yet implemented the fair polluter pays measures that would raise billions of pounds a year for climate action at home and overseas by fairly taxing the largest polluters and wealthiest in our society. Research shows £23bn to £37bn a year could be raised this way without unfairly costing households – this illustrates just how insulting a UK proposal of £9bn over five years would be to communities on the frontline of the climate emergency.
Polling consistently shows strong public backing for raising finance for climate action from fair taxation:
- 85% say those most responsible for climate pollution should shoulder the costs of addressing the harm it causes (YouGov / Friends of the Earth, March 2025).
- Nearly eight in ten people (79%) in the UK believe governments must tax oil, gas, and coal corporations for the environmental damages they cause, such as wildfires, flooding, and drought. (Dynata / Greenpeace and Oxfam, June 2025).
Jennifer Larbie, Head of UK Advocacy and Campaigns at Christian Aid said:
“Slashing climate finance is yet another betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable, who are paying – in some cases with their lives – for a crisis they did not create. Climate change doesn’t respect borders, and the UK Government’s responsibility to act doesn’t stop at its own. This is short-sighted, dangerous, and must be reversed to protect people and the planet.”
Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International Programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said:
“If true, the government’s own recent national security assessment would suggest such a move risks being an act of self-harm for the UK. We import two fifths of our food from overseas, much grown in countries being hit hardest by extremes of heat and flood. The UK’s climate finance helps farmers in these countries to adapt their farming to maintain both their livelihoods and our food security.
“Reneging on commitments would of course damage trust in the UK’s position at a time when it has made real progress in cutting emissions, growing clean industries and making a path to net zero, the only way the world has to halt worsening climate change. And with China potentially offering forms of climate finance to poorer nations which need it, the longer term risk is to the UK’s relative power and influence around the world.”
Beth John, Climate Justice Adviser at Oxfam GB said:
“As climate change impacts intensify, the UK should be expanding its support for the communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis – not shrinking it. Turning away now signals a retreat from responsibility at the very moment bold leadership is most needed.
“Abandoning those most exposed to a crisis they did not cause, whilst doing very little to ensure the biggest and richest polluters pay their fair share for the climate damage they are responsible for is deeply unfair. Deciding not to fairly tax these wealthy polluters – which could raise billions of public finance a year without costing the UK taxpayer – is not just a conscious choice by the government, but a statement about whose futures matter.”
Selena Victor, Senior Director for Policy and Advocacy at Mercy Corps said:
“By withdrawing support for countries on the frontline of the climate crisis – support that is already woefully inadequate – the UK is effectively abandoning people facing the worst consequences of a crisis they did not cause. Let’s be clear: the private sector will not fill the void. Private finance provides just 3% of adaptation needs, and even in the most optimistic scenarios could not contribute more than 15%. Such finance would completely bypass the most fragile and vulnerable places.
“Secretary of State Yvette Cooper should reverse this decision. If the UK wants to claim climate leadership, it must start by protecting the people already living the daily reality of climate disaster – not by turning away from them when they need solidarity most.”
Natalie Hall, Head of Global Policy at the RSPB said:
“As the world faces climate change and biodiversity loss, the UK’s leadership is more vital than ever on the global stage. Cutting the ICF budget and removing the nature ringfence would be a serious strategic setback. Nature and climate are inseparable, we cannot reach Net Zero while the natural systems that store carbon and protect communities are in decline.
“We urge the UK Government to rethink these cuts and instead strengthen dedicated funding for nature, our first line of defence in an increasingly unstable climate.”
Zoe Quiroz Cullen, Director of Climate & Nature Linkages at Fauna & Flora said:
“In our globalised world, the ability of countries and communities to respond to climate change beyond our borders, including protecting and restoring nature, has direct and significant economic, security and wellbeing implications in Britain.
If true, Government plans to reduce international climate finance, at a time when need is rapidly increasing – and put at risk the nature finance ringfence – reflects a stark disconnect between rhetoric and policy. A move in this direction would cast a wrecking ball to our international reputation for climate leadership, abandon some of the World’s most vulnerable communities, while simultaneously damaging domestic interests. A lose-lose policy pathway.”
Tim Ingram, WaterAid’s Head of UK Advocacy said:
“Modernisation shouldn’t come at the cost of lives. Cutting the UK’s climate finance budget risks putting millions of lives and global stability at risk. We’ve just witnessed southern Africa ravaged by floods, leaving hundreds dead, hundreds of thousands displaced, and communities facing a full-blown health crisis. How can the government turn its back now?
“The UK must safeguard international climate finance and invest in water, sanitation, and hygiene – the first line of defence against climate and health emergencies, and one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives.”
Louise Hutchins, Convenor at Make Polluters Pay said:
“If true, this cut is completely unnecessary and a political choice. Oil and gas companies have made vast profits for decades while knowingly driving the climate crisis – they should be taxed more to pay their fair share to protect people here and around the world, not leave ordinary people to pick up the bill. Letting them off the hook makes us all more vulnerable. It’s time wealthy oil and gas investors got out of our politics.”
Lisa Wise, Director of Global Outcomes for Children at Save the Children UK said:
“The UK cannot shy away from paying its fair share of the international climate finance goal agreed in 2024. A £9 billion commitment falls well short of what is needed and is not enough for the scale of the climate crisis children are living through. Rather than cutting climate finance, the government should be looking to raise new and additional funding through fair “polluter pays” measures to ensure children and families on the frontlines of the climate crisis get the support they need.
“The UK is exploring a new approach to international cooperation rooted in partnership. That is the right thing to do. But it can’t be delivered through swingeing cuts without recognising that climate programmes are a lifeline for children. When climate finance is slashed, children pick up the tab. Make polluters pay, not children.”
Rudy Schulkind, Political Campaigner at Greenpeace UK said:
“As the floods, storms, heatwaves and droughts – supercharged by climate change – continue to destroy an increasing number of lives and livelihoods around the world, the UK has a moral and legal responsibility to provide more climate finance, not a real terms cut of 40%.
“By cutting international climate finance, the government would be putting the interests of oil and gas companies before communities in the Global South being battered by extreme weather.
“Rather than slashing this vital source of money that is protecting tens of millions of lives, it’s high time the government started taxing the climate-wrecking oil and gas companies making record profits from a business model that continues to drive climate collapse. The vast majority of the public agree that it’s time for them to pay up.”
Helen McEachern, CEO at CARE International UK said:
“Just months ago, the UK signed up to new commitments on a Just Transition Mechanism and the Belém Gender Action Plan, to take forward much needed progress on climate change. Yet instead of increasing new and additional finance to deliver on those promises, the Government now appears to be pulling back even on funding it had already committed. This is not progress – it’s a step backwards.”
ENDS
Notes for editors:
- Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) brings together international development and environment organisations in the UK working on the poverty-nature-climate agenda to advocate for climate justice and sustainable development for all.
- CAN-UK is the UK node of Climate Action Network (CAN), a global network of more than 2,000 civil society organisations in over 140 countries driving collective and sustainable action to fight the climate crisis and to achieve social and racial justice. climatenetwork.org.
- On the 20th May 2025, CAN-UK with more than 80 organisations wrote to the Prime Minister calling for increased international climate finance through fair taxation on polluters. You can read the open letter here.
- There are various estimates of the revenues that can be raised by fair polluter pays measures, including Fair taxes on the UK’s biggest polluters could have raised up to £23bn last year to combat the climate crisis | Oxfam GB and Computer Says Yes: How the UK can raise billions in climate finance for COP30 commitments – Christian Aid | Mediacentre
- Public polling cited: Protection for low-income households key to net zero support | Friends of the Earth, Reform voters among majority in UK that want higher taxes on fossil fuel polluters | Global Witness, and Peter Capaldi, Joe Lycett and Daniel Lismore back demand to make polluters pay for climate damages – as global survey finds 81% of people support polluter taxes on fossil fuel companies | Oxfam GB
- The government’s nature security assessment cited: Nature security assessment on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security – GOV.UK
- The Guardian report: UK to cut climate finance to poor countries by a fifth despite promising more help | Climate aid | The Guardian
