Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effect of reductions in UK aid on the climate vulnerability of women and girls in developing countries.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change and environmental degradation. Evidence shows that they are more likely to be dependant for their food and income on threatened natural resources, more likely to be responsible for securing increasingly scarce water and fuel, and significantly more likely to die or be displaced during climate-related disasters.
We remain committed to our five-year pledge to spend £11.6 billion on International Climate Finance (ICF) with an extra £1bn in 2025 if the economy grows as forecast. This will support developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and adopt clean growth pathways, reducing or avoiding carbon emissions. The UK will spend more than £10 billion this year to tackle climate change, improve global health and fight poverty - making us one of the biggest aid donors in the G7.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how her Department measures the effect of climate vulnerability on women and girls in developing countries.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change and environmental degradation. Evidence shows that they are more likely to be dependant for their food and income on threatened natural resources, more likely to be responsible for securing increasingly scarce water and fuel, and significantly more likely to die or be displaced during climate-related disasters. There are a number of measures of climate vulnerability that we use to inform our decision making and programming.
At COP26 President Alok Sharma and UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience Anne-Marie Trevelyan hosted Gender Day which helped build momentum internationally to drive implementation of the Gender Action Plan agreed at COP25. This will support a greater focus on gender equality within action to tackle climate change and build resilience to climate-related disasters. The UK announced £165 million of funding to help address the dual challenges of gender inequality and climate change.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much of the £286 million allocated in aid to Afghanistan in 2021 has been dispersed as of 27 November 2021; and what her timetable is for the remaining aid to be dispersed.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We are doubling our humanitarian and development assistance for Afghanistan this year, taking this up to £286 million. In all, between April and November 2021, we disbursed over £70 million for life-saving humanitarian support for Afghanistan, including for emergency food, health, nutrition, shelter, water and sanitation, and mine action. This includes £10 million for countries at risk of increased refugee flows from Afghanistan.
We are developing firm plans for the allocation of the remainder of the £286 million and will make further announcements in due course.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much her Department spent on water resilience projects in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21; and what the projected spending is for those projects in 2021-22.
Answered by Wendy Morton
UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend is recorded in line with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Development Assistance Committee coding. This does not specifically record water resilience. Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on water and sanitation, including water resilience, can be found in the respective Annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development.
Following the recent spending review and autumn budget, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has started the process of allocating sectoral funding. This process should provide some more clarity on sector specific funding over the coming months.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support new technologies to advance climate adaptation, including in developing countries.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government supports research in a range of technologies, spanning many sectors, which will improve our resilience to climate change. For example, in Defra we have awarded £5.5 million between 2018 and 2023 towards Genetic Improvement Networks research projects, which aim to enhance the productivity, sustainability and resilience of the main UK crops. We are also supporting the UK Research and Innovation Transforming Food Production Initiative, through which a public investment of £90 million will be made over four years to support the rapid development and deployment of advanced precision agricultural solutions. The UK Climate Resilience Programme also supports adaptive endeavours on both national and regional scales, through action-oriented research and by working directly with local communities. The UK is a world leader in climate science and the Government has developed extensive research and innovation capabilities over the past few decades to ensure policies are built upon a robust, ever-growing evidence base.
Research excellence from world-class UK institutions is complemented by a proven track record of working collaboratively across the globe to build adaptive capacity and enhance resilience, by harnessing the power of research, evidence translation and community engagement. For example, the UK-funded Future Climate for Africa research programme, known as FCFA, has delivered major advances in the scientific understanding of African climate variability and change, improving continent-wide prediction of the impacts of climate change. Crucially, the FCFA also tackles the challenge of how to bring this new science into use to reduce the risks faced by governments, businesses, and communities on the frontline. Supporting novel, collaborative approaches between researchers and decision-makers in country has helped to build the climate resilience of cities across southern Africa, improved flood risk management in West Africa, and improved water security in East Africa.
More broadly, the Government has doubled its international climate finance of £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26, with an extra £1 billion in 2025 if the economy grows as forecast, supporting developing nations to access clean technology and build green infrastructure. For example, the Clean Energy Innovation Facility (CEIF) is a £50 million programme which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of clean energy technologies in developing countries, supporting clean growth and a resilient recovery from COVID-19.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support countries that are vulnerable to disruption caused by climate change; what discussions they have had with the government of Burundi about the impact of rising water levels of Lake Tanganyika on the displacement of people; and what support, if any, they intend to provide to that country to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
We recognise that it is often the most vulnerable countries who are being hit hardest by the impact of climate change. We are clear that COP26 needs to deliver ambitious outcomes on adaptation as well as mitigation. That is why the UK has committed to doubling our climate finance for mitigation and adaptation to £11.6 billion from 2021-2025. This will help developing countries take action to tackle climate change. During discussions in June, the former Minister for Africa encouraged Burundi to engage on climate adaptation, including through COP26.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much and what proportion of Official Development Assistance the UK has been allocated (a) bilaterally and (b) multilaterally to water, sanitation and hygiene in each of the last five years.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on Water Supply and Sanitation can be found in the respective annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development. The statistics for 2020-2021 were published at the end of September 2021 and the figures for 2021 - 2022 will be released in the same publication next autumn. Additionally, the UK government is undertaking a three-year spending review which is expected to be announced at the Autumn budget at the end of October 2021. This should provide more clarity on future sectoral spend for the next three years.
UK Multilateral ODA spend is not published by sector because the funding is often provided flexibly to finance a wide range of policy objectives, or it is pooled with funding from other donors and therefore difficult to attribute to one country. The link above breaks down ODA funding to multilateral agencies up to 2020.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much Official Development Assistance her Department plans to spend (a) bilaterally and (b) multilaterally on water, sanitation and hygiene in 2021-22.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on Water Supply and Sanitation can be found in the respective annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development. The statistics for 2020-2021 were published at the end of September 2021 and the figures for 2021 - 2022 will be released in the same publication next autumn. Additionally, the UK government is undertaking a three-year spending review which is expected to be announced at the Autumn budget at the end of October 2021. This should provide more clarity on future sectoral spend for the next three years.
UK Multilateral ODA spend is not published by sector because the funding is often provided flexibly to finance a wide range of policy objectives, or it is pooled with funding from other donors and therefore difficult to attribute to one country. The link above breaks down ODA funding to multilateral agencies up to 2020.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which multilateral organisations will receive Official Development Assistance for water, sanitation and hygiene in the financial year 2021-22.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK supports the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership to help national governments increase access to water, sanitation and hygeine services (WASH); we fund the WHO-UNICEF hosted Joint Monitoring Programme which tracks progress against water and sanitation global targets; and we support the Global Water Partnership to promote climate resilient WASH and water governance.
In addition, we have incorporated our direct WASH funding to the World Health Organisation into the new flexible core voluntary contribution package, which supports a number of important global health objectives including WASH. UK contributions to multilateral development banks (including the World Bank and Asia and Africa regional development banks) also supports the water, sanitation, and hygiene work of these multilateral organisations.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2021 to Question 34078 on Overseas Aid: Water, which of the UK-funded clean water projects will have funding reduced or ceased as a result of the UK official overseas aid budget being reduced from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has required the UK government to make the difficult decision to temporarily reduce Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI. Global Health, which encompasses water, sanitation and hygiene remains a priority for the UK.
Yearly UK bilateral ODA spend on Water Supply and Sanitation can be found in the respective annual Statistics on International Development publications: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development. The statistics for 2020 will be published by the end of this year.