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, which he said would allow the UK to spend £13.4 billion more on defense per year from 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.
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“Catastrophic blow”
International charities and aid organisations have responded in dismay, slamming the move as “a betrayal”, “short-sighted” and “a truly catastrophic blow” that will cause more people to die and lose their livelihoods in the world’s most vulnerable nations.
Worsening climate impacts, soaring humanitarian needs and growing instability across the world requires stronger global solidarity rather than retreat, experts warned.
“When we’ve just had the hottest January on record and humanitarian crises are at an all-time high, the UK government’s decision to slash its [overseas development assistance] budget is deeply shameful,” said Teresa Anderson, of ActionAid International.
Tom Mitchell, executive director of the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), told Climate Home News that Starmer should consider cutting harmful fossil fuel subsidies “before raiding an already depleted support system that is relied on by some of the world’s most vulnerable people”.
Climate finance watchers told Climate Home the move also threatens the UK’s ability to deliver the increased climate finance promised to developing countries at last year’s COP29.
Climate funds on the chopping board?
The UK has pledged to spend £11.6 billion ($14.7 billion) on climate finance for developing countries between 2021 and 2026, and Starmer’s Labour government recently said it remains committed to meeting this pledge.
However, analysis carried out by the UK’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact last year found that the goal would be challenging to meet as more than half of the money is expected to be spent in the last two years and amid growing pressures on the aid budget. This is despite the UK making accounting changes, which increased what it counted as climate finance without recipient countries receiving more money.
Laetitia Pettinotti, of the ODI Global think-tank, said the UK’s announcement lacks clarity on whether climate finance will be ringfenced from the cuts, which are due to take effect from 2027.
“It seems likely that climate finance could be on the chopping board if over half of that pledge is yet to be met. Sweeping cuts with no transparency is what we’ve come to expect from Trump and Musk; Starmer can’t follow suit, he needs to provide clarity,” she said.
Moreover, rich nations like the UK will be expected to dig deeper into their pockets to help scale the finance that flows to countries most vulnerable to climate impacts and who contributed the least to causing them.
After US retreat, countries clash over who should make up Green Climate Fund shortfall
Worse timing
At the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, developed countries agreed to triple finance to help poorer nations cut emissions and cope with climate impacts to $300 billion annually by 2035.
“Let’s be clear this can be life and death for struggling communities and this reduction could make meeting the UK’s climate finance commitments even more challenging,” said Gareth Redmond-King, of the UK’s Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).
As wealthy nations are expected to bolster their existing climate finance commitments, “the UK government has just reduced the budget that climate finance comes out of,” he told Climate Home.
Ahead of critical climate talks in Brazil in November, when countries are due to assess whether collective climate pledges can halt warming in line with global goals, “we were expecting to hear new climate finance commitments by the rich countries to build confidence in the poorest and emerging economies that they can afford to be ambitious in their climate targets,” said long-term climate finance watcher Clare Shakya, of The Nature Conservancy.
“If we do not peak emissions as close to 1.5C as feasible and halt biodiversity’s decline, we will be facing many more security challenges in the coming years. The timing of this news from the UK could not be worse,” Shakya told Climate Home.
Prime Minister Starmer told UK members of parliament the decision had required some “extremely difficult and painful choices” and that this was not one “that I wanted to take or that I am happy to take”.
“We will do everything we can to return to a world where that is not the case and to rebuild a capability on development,” he said, insisting the UK will “continue to play a key humanitarian role” in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, as well as tackling climate change.
The UK government was contacted for comment but didn’t respond at the time of publication.
The post UK aid budget cuts threaten climate finance pledge to vulnerable nations, experts warn appeared first on Climate Home News.
UK aid budget cuts threaten climate finance pledge to vulnerable nations, experts warn
Climate Change
Pressure builds on Australia to deliver, as Guterres injects fresh momentum for fossil fuel phase out at COP31
ANTALYA, Türkiye, Tuesday 10 November 2026 — Following the launch of the Brazil COP30 Presidency Roadmap which saw a rousing address by outgoing United Nations climate chief Antonio Guterres, who spoke alongside former COP Presidents and John Kerry, Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on the Australian government to step up and deliver a concrete national roadmap away from fossil fuels.
UN Secretary General Guterres urged all countries to build concrete national roadmaps for transitioning away from fossil fuels that are aligned with science and with clear timelines and responsibilities. He urged greater cooperation between fossil fuel importing and exporting countries and said that by 2028, every country should be able to show what it has done to cut fossil fuel use of production, and outline what it will do next.
In addition to encouraging all countries to develop national plans, he encouraged the COP31 Presidency of Australia and Türkiye, and future presidencies, to carry forward the work of Brazil in driving the global transition away from fossil fuels.
Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: “The success of COP31 will be judged by whether it delivers real action and momentum to phase out fossil fuels. The Pacific and the world need concrete dates and credible plans to deliver roadmaps away from fossil fuels based on the best available science, and a commitment to put people, energy security and the planet ahead of fossil fuel interests.
“Brazil’s determination to push on despite resistance from a handful of fossil fuel producers can be a lesson for Australia as it takes the reins of negotiations. Australia must pick up the baton from Brazil, and lead by example with its own national roadmap away from fossil fuels, including exports.
“Minister Bowen urged us to “show the world that multilateralism works.” He acknowledged the science of overshooting 1.5°C, the non-negotiable survival line for Pacific communities, and the urgent need to return as quickly as possible to reduce the duration and severity of harm. Yet the Australian government continues to greenlight coal and gas, including 38 approvals since it took office in 2022.
“Our planet is on the brink. Communities bearing the brunt of climate disasters and soaring cost of living do not need another meeting where leaders tell us that change is coming — we need leaders that will show us when it will happen, and how it will happen fairly.
“Australia cannot champion the survival of the Pacific while simultaneously exporting our destruction. Australia must step up and deliver practical policies, not paper pledges.”
ENDS
COP31 images and video available here in Greenpeace Media Library
Media contact: Kate O’Callaghan in Antalya (GMT+3) on +61 406 231 892 (Whatsapp/Signal)
Energy and Transport Day at COP31 ironically saw a second morning of horrible traffic jams and over-crowded buses and trams, meaning early events at the venue had to be hastily rescheduled.
This COP has more than 68,500 registered participants, together with another 24,500 workers needing to reach the venue, which is around 25 kilometres from the centre of Antalya.
Once things finally got underway in the halls, the focus was on two main voluntary pushes: transitioning away from fossil fuels (TAFF) and the COP31 Global Electrification Pledge, meant to usher in the “age of electricity”, according to the Turkish presidency.
The pledge sets a goal of raising electricity’s share of final energy consumption from around 23% today to 35% by 2035 (known as 35×35) by electrifying transport, buildings and industry.
“This year’s energy crisis has shocked us out of our complacency and demonstrated the inherent vulnerability of dependence on energy imports. Electrifying the global economy is now essential to boost energy security, cut emissions, and drive economic growth,” COP31 President Murat Kurum said in a statement.
The COP31 presidency is “determined to chart a path forward and use the annual UN summit to build momentum”, he added. But it remains to be seen whether and how the pledge will be incorporated into the final cover decision from Antalya, as some fossil fuel-producing countries are set to oppose any mention of the electricity to meet it coming from clean sources.
Neither is it clear which countries are backing the pledge. Climate Home News understands that no list is expected this week, as Turkiye rallies governments to the cause. Australia and other recent COP host nations are on board, while the European Union co-hosts the first “Electrification Forum” on Tuesday, bringing together governments, institutions, businesses and financiers.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), meanwhile, will lead a Global Electrification Tracking Mechanism to monitor global and regional electrification trends.
The IEA says the 35×35 electrification goal is within reach with strong political backing. But a recent analysis from Climate Action Tracker shows current policies will only lead to a share of 28% for electricity by the deadline.
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COP31 outcome needs to prioritise transition away from fossil fuels
Many countries are already working on parts of their transition, such as phasing out coal or ending fossil fuel subsidies, with more expected to follow soon -
Developing countries face climate finance deficit as loan payments soar
Repayments on climate loans could overtake new lending by 2036, according to CARE analysis shared exclusively with Climate Home News
On the TAFF front, Brazil’s COP30 presidency held a high-level event to showcase its new global roadmap, which is essentially a toolkit to help countries start planning their transitions away from coal, oil and gas.
Here, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries should use the document to build their own concrete national roadmaps including clear timelines, responsibilities and financing needs.
By the next Global Stocktake of national climate plans in 2028, “every country should be able to show what it has done to cut fossil fuel use or production, what it will do next, and how it will measure progress,” he said, in a challenge to governments.
He added that it is “long past time to stop treating the transition away from fossil fuels as taboo or intractable” and called on COP31 to “move from discussing the transition to organising it, financing it, and delivering it”.
European nations signal support for fossil fuel roadmap, says COP30 president
As with the electrification pledge, the TAFF process remains a pick and choose effort. Some fossil fuel-producing nations are adamant it will stay that way and are likely to resist any attempt to anchor the roadmap in the cover decision or other negotiated outcomes at COP31.
Nonetheless, energy security concerns are expected to lead to an almost 60% increase in renewable capacity growth from 2026-2031 compared to the previous six years, according to the IEA, with solar power accounting for three quarters of that growth.
Declarations aim to electrify shipping and rooftops
One sector that is tricky to electrify – mainly because of a lack of chargers in the middle of the ocean – is maritime transport.
But a newly formed group of ports, shippers, campaign groups and think-tanks want electricity to be used where it can in the sector – electrifying ships on short routes like ferries, plugging ships into the electricity grid when they’re in port and electrifying the machines that handle ships’ cargo.
While the COP31 presidency has proposed a 35% by 2035 goal, this group said on Tuesday they want electricity’s share of final energy demand in shipping to rise to a more modest 20% by 2035 – up from a negligible amount today. The Danish Port of Esbjerg and Californian Port of Long Beach are among the backers of the Maritime Electrification Breakthrough Goal.
Maritime electrification projects could get a huge boost from the International Maritime Organisation’s Net Zero Fund, if it is agreed at intergovernmental talks in London starting later this month.
Also on Energy Day at COP31, a group of countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Vanuatu signed onto the Global Rooftop Solar Declaration, an Australia-led initiative to try and double the number of solar-powered households to 300 million by 2030.
It’s not clear exactly how many countries are backing it. But the presidents of Palau and Pakistan also joined leaders to discuss the initiative while Indonesia’s state-operated utility PT PLN signed up too.
Australia’s climate minister Chris Bowen said in a statement: “Many countries have the sunshine, the space and the demand, but lack the finance, infrastructure and workforce needed to unlock this opportunity. This declaration is about changing that.”
Coal phase-out partnerships offer emerging economies early help
A multilateral initiative launched in Antalya aims to tackle one of the key demands from coal-producing countries in the Global South: help to access the existing pool of funding for transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Through “Coal Transition Partnerships”, the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA) – a group of governments and other actors launched in 2017 – is seeking to unlock more than $23 billion by supporting developing countries to draw up their first phase-out plans.
Backers of the initiative include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and climate research think-tanks like Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and TransitionZero.
Julia Skorupska, head of the PPCA secretariat, told Climate Home News in Antalya that the early interventions could help developing countries access larger financial mechanisms along the lines of the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs), which are working to help several developing countries phase out their coal fleets.
She added that countries are required to have done “a lot of work” before applying for transition funding, including having investment plans and a portfolio of projects. “For us that feels like a gap,” she said.
She added that the initiative has received “a lot of interest” and is meant to enable early-stage planning in coal-dependent emerging economies such as Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Pakistan.
By the time of the next Global Stocktake – the UN’s five-year review of climate progress – in 2028, the PPCA aims to be supporting ten of the world’s most coal-dependent countries. These include Indonesia, Vietnam, India and South Africa, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Farah Heliantina, energy transition official at Indonesia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, said in a statement that the country’s experience “has taught us how challenging this transition can be”, as uncertainty in global fossil fuel markets threatens energy security at home.
Finance for the transition away from fossil fuels has proven difficult to channel effectively. At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, South Africa was the first country to announce an $8.5bn JETP – funded by a group of donor countries including the UK, Germany and France – which included projects like early power plant retirements, reskilling workers and building transmission lines for renewable energy. However, by 2025, only around $3.8bn had been allocated.
After the war in Iran disrupted oil and gas markets this year, countries with gas-fired power fleets like China, Korea, Japan, and some European countries have turned to easier-to-source coal generation to keep their economies running, the IEA has highlighted. Skorupska said there’s a risk that new coal investments could become stranded.
“Fundamentally, we want to think about how we can help people overcome those shorter-term challenges to get the real long-term benefits of the transition away from fossil fuels,” she said.
Traffic chaos set to get worse as leaders arrive tomorrow
The first two days of COP31 have seen travel chaos which looks set to get worse tomorrow. As world leaders arrive in town and head to the conference centre, some roads will be closed so that the VIPs can be ferried in past not-so-important delegates. The COP31 presidency is warning of “severe disruptions”.
In an email to all COP participants, it advises getting to the venue by 7am. There will be more public transport than usual between 5-7am, after which time no public transport can leave the area, the email says, without specifying when it will resume.
Route schedules are still being planned and will be shared “as soon as possible”, the COP31 Transport Coordination Center says.
The 42 world leaders causing this heightened level of disruption on Wednesday will speak from 2pm local time. They include Brazil’s recently re-elected President Lula, European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and China’s Vice President Han Zheng. The Turkish and Australian leaders are not on the list, but are expected to speak as COP31 co-hosts.
The speech of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley will be worth a watch as she often uses COPs to unveil interesting and progressive new ideas. So will that – for different reasons – of Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, the only minister allowed to speak on a day reserved mainly for presidents and prime ministers.
After COP28 agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, he infamously described this as just one item on an “a la carte menu”.
Another set of leaders – kicking off with the UK’s Andy Burnham – will speak on Thursday morning, including those of Nigeria, DR Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Venezuela’s new President Delcy Rodriguez.
The post COP31 Bulletin Day 2: Energy Day off to slow start amid transport chaos appeared first on Climate Home News.
COP31 Bulletin Day 2: Energy Day off to slow start amid transport chaos
With rich governments and development banks delivering more climate finance as loans, developing countries could be paying back more each year than they receive in new lending by the mid-2030s, new research has found.
CARE Denmark and the CARE Climate Justice Center worked out the repayment schedules of around 17,500 climate loan records reported by developed countries and multilateral lenders between 2011 and 2024, in what the researchers say is the first analysis of its kind.
It estimates that repayments on these public climate loans, including interest and fees, nearly tripled from $6.9 billion in 2020 to $20.1 billion in 2024. That is equivalent to around a fifth of the public climate finance that developed countries reported providing that year.
If climate lending stays at its 2024 level each year and on the same terms, annual repayments on old and new loans would overtake fresh lending in 2036, the researchers found.
“By not making the backflows of climate finance visible, Global North countries cheat their public,” John Nordbo, senior climate adviser at CARE Denmark, told Climate Home News. “They give an impression that they are actually more supportive than they are.”
Finance takes centre stage at COP31
The World Bank is by far the biggest lender in the portfolio, followed by Japan and France. Overall, loans worth $489 billion will cost borrowers an estimated $663 billion over their lifetimes.
Climate finance looks certain to become a central issue at COP31 after developing nations scored an early win by getting a new work programme on climate finance added to the summit’s official agenda.
A key question looming over the talks in Türkiye is how rich countries will make good on their promise to deliver at least $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035, amid shrinking aid budgets and spending redirected to other priorities, including defence.
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When the oil companies leave, who pays?
Across the world, communities facing the decline of fossil fuel industries are demanding a Just Transition that gives them a say in what comes next. Establishing a strong mechanism at COP31 could help them secure it -
