Statement: UK Aid Cuts Are a Setback While Offering a Reset for Climate Priorities

Statement: UK Aid Cuts Are a Setback While Offering a Reset for Climate Priorities

London, United Kingdom (20 March 2026) - This week, the United Kingdom government announced the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's allocations of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for the next three years, confirming substantial reductions across multiple regions, including Africa and the Middle East.

This follows the 2025 decision to reduce the overall aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income by 2027/28. The UK government stated that it will spend 'around' £6 billion over the next three years on international climate action. Under the previous five-year arrangement, the UK provided £11.6 billion in total for climate, averaging £2.3 billion a year; this therefore marks a 13% cut. A previous earmark of £3 billion in funding for nature has also been removed.

Following is a statement by Edward Davey, Head of the World Resources Institute's UK Office:

"The UK government's new cuts to its international climate and development finance will have an undeniable impact on the lives of the world's poorest people. They will also affect the UK's chances of living up fully to its commitments to tackling the global challenges that affect everyone, including climate change, security and prosperity.

"There is still however major scope to use the remaining £6 billion of international climate finance in ways that bring significant benefits to people, climate and nature. The shifts towards supporting systemic change, capacity building, local solutions and equality are all welcome, as is the focus on using scarce public finance on the poorest and most vulnerable countries, including conflict and fragile states. The new funding rightly focuses on leveraging resources through development banks and mobilizing private finance.

"The key now is for the UK to pursue a bold, ambitious and more integrated approach to climate, nature and development - in the way it joins up across government, in the range of instruments it uses, and in how it works with low- and middle-income countries and other partners to press for faster and deeper reforms in the international system.

"The stakes are high and getting higher: as climate impacts intensify, levels of debt, inequality and vulnerability keep growing. Countries face a race against time to build and invest in the resilient, green and inclusive economies of the future.

"The UK still has a vital role to play in supporting a stronger and fairer economic future, even in light of the new budget - and its planned Global Partnerships Conference in May with South Africa is an excellent first opportunity before the UK G20 to take the new vision forward."

STATEMENT: UK Should Deliver on International Climate Finance Promises