Corporate report

UK government response to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s review of UK aid's International Climate Finance commitments

Published 16 December 2024

The government welcomes the Independent Commission for Aid Impact’s (ICAI) rapid review of the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) commitments.

We acknowledge the findings of the review and accept the recommendations in full.

We are pleased that the report recognises the UK’s continued commitment to our £11.6 billion ICF target, confirmed by the Prime Minister in his remarks at COP29, and our global leadership position on climate finance. As the Chief Commissioner, who led the review, said, this is “key to helping the most vulnerable countries adapt and respond to global warming”.

We acknowledge the finding in the review that meeting the target will be a challenge. The UK has continued to prioritise delivering against this target despite many global challenges including the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UK spent £5.4 billion of ICF from 2021/2022 to 2023/2024 leaving a balance of £6.2 billion of ICF to spend in the remaining two financial years. The UK fully costed the balance of ICF3 spend in the 2024/2025 Spending Review, providing all-important predictability for our developing country partners.

As well as our commitments to climate finance, at COP29 the Prime Minister demonstrated the UK’s renewed commitment to climate leadership, with an ambitious new NDC of at least 81% by 2035, that will protect our environment, deliver energy security and restore our global climate reputation.    

Recommendation 1

ICF-spending departments should produce a combined detailed internal plan, setting out how much of the remaining spend will be through which channels, (multilateral, bilateral, development capital, research and development), and how the balance between adaptation and mitigation financing will be reached.

Response: accept

The Written Ministerial Statement published on 17 October 2023, set out clearly what had been spent on ICF and how the UK planned to meet the balance of the £11.6 billion commitment. It also confirmed that the UK will seek to ensure that ICF is balanced between adaptation and mitigation spend. We continue to work closely across ICF-spending departments and teams to ensure there is a credible roadmap to delivering the overall ICF target, and these plans have now been costed in the 2024/2025 Spending Review. All departments will continue to communicate to spending teams that meeting the target is a high priority and that they should continue to plan for ICF spend with high confidence. We will closely track plans and pipelines, including the delivery channels for these. 

Recommendation 2

ICF spending departments should publish an annual report which enables people in the UK and around the world to track whether they are meeting their public commitments on climate finance.

Response: accept

ICAI’s review rightly recognises that the UK is one of only a handful of national donors rated ‘good’ on the most recent aid transparency index. We remain committed to being open with our aid budget, including our climate finance.  

The UK routinely publishes detailed information on our climate action and climate finance, in line with our international obligations, under the Enhanced Transparency Framework, through the UNFCCC reporting and review cycle. The latest UK report includes data on our climate finance between January 2019 and December 2020. The next report will include detailed reporting on UK climate finance from January 2021 to December 2022 and is due to be published before the end of the year. The report will also set out methodologies used to calculate the data. Once published, this reporting will undergo a robust review by trained UNFCCC experts.     

We hope to be able to publish updated information before the end of the financial year, either as a WMS or as a bespoke report published on gov.uk.

In addition to financial reporting, we report annually on our ICF results. The last ICF results publication, covering ICF results in financial year 2023/2024 was published in October 2024. We continually seek to improve our reported results to enhance the publication’s usefulness and transparency. In October’s publication:

• the methodologies and guidance on reporting against KPIs 4, 11 and 12 have been improved
• more case studies have been included
• FCDO has continued to expand the availability of disaggregated results
• FCDO has published the version of our data processing pipeline used to produce the 2024 ICF results, under the Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.5281/zenodo.13909217.

The next results publication is due in autumn 2025.

Recommendation 3

All ICF spending departments should integrate consideration of gender in their programmes, including by identifying gender-specific programming, using the gender marker where it is relevant, and providing disaggregated reporting.

Response: accept

We recognise the disproportionate impact of climate change and environmental degradation on women and girls. The FCDO International Women and Girls Strategy 2023 to 2030 outlines a commitment to increase the portion of ICF that is gender marked and recognises the crucial role that women and girls play in effective climate and nature action. Their inclusion is vital to driving locally-led adaptation and internationally a just transition to a green, inclusive economy.

We remain committed to strengthening the integration of gender considerations across the ICF portfolio. Guidance on mainstreaming Gender Equality and Social Inclusion has been developed for ICF spending departments and this year we are developing an external guidance document for delivery partners and stakeholders. FCDO, DESNZ and DEFRA have also set up a new cross-departmental working group to share learning, best practice and improve reporting on gender equality, including (but not limited to) strengthening application of OECD Gender Markers across the ICF portfolio. The FCDO has signed up to the inclusive data charter which prioritises better data disaggregation across FCDO programmes. This aims to drive improvements in the collection of disaggregated data in relation to sex, age, disability, and geography. 

The proportion of ICF spending programmes advancing gender equality (scoring either significant or principal for the OECD-DAC gender equality policy marker) is currently set to increase from 60% in 2021/2022 to 69% in 2025/2026 (where programmes have been assessed).

At COP28, the UK endorsed the Gender-Responsive Just Transitions Partnership Pledge which aims to increase efforts to mainstream gender-just considerations across the transition to a low-carbon and sustainable economy and FCDO joined a Champions Group on Grassroots Gender Just Climate Financing led by the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA). And this year the UK has pledged up to £350,000 of support for GAGGA to expand their critical work in supporting grassroots women’s rights organisations, and up to £5.5 million to support women’s economic empowerment and social norms change through the International Water Management Institute, and to build the resilience of women’s rights organisations across MENA against climate threats. 

Recommendation 4

In line with the white paper commitment, ICF should track the delivery of international climate finance to small-island developing states, fragile and conflict-affected states and least developed countries.

Response: accept

The science is clear; the negative impacts of climate change will intensify as temperatures rise. Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries and Fragile and Conflict Affected States, especially in East Africa and across the Sahel, are already being, and will continue to be, disproportionately impacted by this.

It is crucial that our international climate finance continues to prioritise these geographies and help them adapt to the worst impacts of climate change.

We will continue to track ICF spend and results by geography within the parameters of our programme management system. As in recommendation 3 response above, FCDO has signed up to the inclusive data charter which prioritises better data disaggregation across FCDO programmes. This aims to drive improvements in the collection of disaggregated data in relation to sex, age, disability, and geography.