Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking to help ensure that COP26 increases the (a) quality and (b) quantity of finance for climate adaptation; and what assessment he has made of how that finance can be used to support access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities globally.

As COP26 Presidency, we are clear that we must deliver for people at the front line of climate change. We continue to call on donors to demonstrate the required action now, including meeting and surpassing the goal of mobilising $100 billion of climate finance a year for developing countries. The UK is leading by example - we have committed to double our International Climate Finance to £11.6 billion over the next five years - and we are calling on others to be equally ambitious. We are also committed to addressing concerns about the quantity, quality and composition of climate finance, and the recent UK-hosted Climate and Development Ministerial was an important moment to listen and respond to the concerns of developing countries on these issues.

The impacts of climate change can be felt most acutely in the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). At the same time investing in WASH is an important measure for strengthening adaptation and resilience, and this is why the UK is prioritising a range of water-related resilience initiatives, including the Water Resilience Accelerator and the Adaptation Action Coalition Water initiative.