G20 Summit: PM Rishi Sunak announces UK’s biggest ever aid of $2 billion to Green Climate Fund

As the G20 Summit moves towards conclusion, the United Kingdom will contribute a record $2 billion to the Green Climate Fund to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Sunday. 

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Notably, this is the biggest single funding commitment made by the UK to help the world tackle climate change. G20 Summit in India is inching closer to its conclusion.

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The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the biggest single funding commitment the UK has made to help the world tackle climate change. It was was established by 194 countries following the Copenhagen Accord at COP15.

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“Uplift makes a significant contribution towards the UK’s pledge to spend 11.6bn Pounds on international climate finance, cementing our global climate leadership. UK continues to show global climate leadership, having cut emissions faster than any other G7 country,” said a release by the British High Commission.

UK's biggest ever financial aid to tackle climate change

 The recent contribution will prove to be UK's biggest ever aid to deal with the issue. It will also pave way for similar contributions by other developed nations in future. 

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The GCF is the largest global fund dedicated to supporting developing countries to reduce global emissions and support communities to adapt to the effects of climate change. The recent contribution has market a 12.7 per cent increase on the UK's previous contribution to the GCF for the period of 2020-23. Previous funding, was itself, a double amount of Britain's initial funding to establish the fund in 2014.

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At the G20 Summit, UK PM Sunak gave a clarion call to leaders to work together and reduce their carbon emoissions ahead of the COP 28 Summit, scheduled to take place this December.

 “The UK is stepping up and delivering on our climate commitments, both by decarbonising our own economy and supporting the world’s most vulnerable to deal with the impact of climate change,” said UK Prime Minister.

 “This is the kind of leadership that the world rightly expects from G20 countries. And this government will continue to lead by example in making the UK, and the world, more prosperous and secure,” he added.

The UK has pledged to spend 11.6 billion pounds on international climate finance between 2021 and 2026. This announcement marks a "major contribution towards this commitment and follows the Prime Minister’s announcement at COP27 that the UK would triple our funding for climate adaptation,” according to the release.

The press release also stated that the UK will continue to stress the importance of the GCF in delivering results with even greater speed. This includes asking the GCF to further improve its delivery for those countries most vulnerable to climate change, particularly Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, said the release.

Earlier in the day, UK PM Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty visited Akshardham temple on Sunday. Afterwards, he reached Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.