Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to which countries and for what purpose her Department's contribution to the International Climate Fund has been spent; and what proportion of such funding (a) has been allocated to any multilateral institutions and (b) is (i) capital and (ii) resource expenditure.

Defra is currently funding three projects through the International Climate Fund (ICF):

(i) ‘Reducing Deforestation in the Brazilian Cerrado’ (£10m resource expenditure) to reduce the loss of biodiversity by restoring native vegetation and reducing deforestation; this project is being implemented by the World Bank.

(ii) ‘Low Carbon Agriculture and Avoided Deforestation to Reduce Poverty’ (£24.9m capital expenditure) supports small and medium sized farms in the Amazon and Atlantic Forests (Brazil) to implement low-carbon agriculture, protect forests and reduce the loss of biodiversity; this project is being implemented by the Inter-American Development Bank.

(iii) Defra has contributed £25.1m (capital expenditure) to the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes, a multilateral fund. The Fund will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the land sector and from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries through implementation of sustainable agriculture and smarter land-use planning, policies and practices.