Britain’s £1.44bn aid bill to make the world more green

BRITAIN will double the amount of money it spends on cutting carbon emissions in the developing world over the next four years after crunch talks at the G7 summit.

A total of £1.44billion from the aid budget and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will be spent on tackling climate change, including wildfires.

This is up from the UK’s Green Climate Fund (GCF) contribution of £720million between 2014 and 2019, it was announced yesterday. It came as the G7 agreed to spend £18million on the Amazon, mainly to send firefighting planes to tackle the blazes engulfing the world’s biggest rainforest.

The summit also agreed to support a medium-term reforestation plan which will be unveiled at the UN in September, France and Chile announced.

The GCF supports projects to protect and preserve natural habitats in the developing world.

The UK is doubling support to help developing countries cut their green

‘Investment in preparedness’

house gas emissions as part of efforts to meet global targets set in Paris.

International Development Secretary Alok Sharma said: ‘The World Bank estimates 100million people are at risk of being pushed into poverty by 2030 if action isn’t taken to tackle climate change.

‘This is a global problem that requires a global solution. Doubling the UK’s contribution to the world’s largest fund dedicated to tackling climate change will enable more investment in prevention and preparedness, so we can achieve our climate change goals.’

Speaking at the summit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK would see ‘a very active environmentalist administration, protecting habitat, protecting biodiversity but reducing CO2 and reducing climate change emissions from technological progress’.

Brazil will have to agree to any reforestation plan after yesterday’s announcement at the G7.

French president Emmanuel Macron had made the issue one of the summit’s priorities.