UK government announces $390 million for climate justice

UK calls for world to be ‘climate resilient’ by 2030 as Cop26 delivers billions for more vulnerable

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is the UK government’s champion of climate adaptation and resilience at Cop26. AP

The UK government has announced plans to invest more than $390 million in helping the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the UK government’s champion for adaptation and resilience at Cop26, will convene a ministerial session on Adaptation, Loss and Damage Day at the summit in Glasgow.

Ministers from the European Commission, and at least 26 countries and regions, including the US, will attend the meeting, at which Ms Trevelyan will announce a financial pledge from Westminster and urge wealthy nations to do more to support poorer countries.

The UK will invest £274 million ($370m) in Asia and the Pacific region to help communities to prepare for the impact of climate change.

A £15 million adaptation fund for developing countries will be also created, and £1 million will support the humanitarian response to climate change.

“We must act now to stop climate change from pushing more people into poverty,” Ms Trevelyan said before the event.

“We know that climate impacts disproportionately affect those already most vulnerable.

“We are aiming for significant change that will ultimately contribute to sustainable development and a climate-resilient future for all, with no one left behind.”

Representatives of communities hit by climate change will also be given a chance to speak to world leaders at the meeting.

Emily Bohobo N’Dombaxe Dola, the facilitator of the adaptation resilience group Youth NGOs, a group set up by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, will address the ministers.

“I was drawn to climate action after seeing first-hand the impacts of climate change on local coastal communities in Senegal, both impacts already there and those yet to come,” she said.

“It is the socially marginalised and geographically vulnerable across both northern and southern societies that already suffer the most due to natural disasters and shifting weather patterns, from working-class and refugee communities through to people with disabilities, the elderly, women and young girls. Yet I have encountered countless displays of resilience by these communities and local actors.

“Now it is time for governments and donors to level up on equitable finance and plans for loss and damage and for adaptation.”

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