The House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee is launching a call for evidence in a major new inquiry on UK climate policy and finance.
It said that it recognised that climate change is a global problem that requires a global response. The world is now experiencing the increasingly severe impacts of a rapidly heating climate with intense wildfires, severe droughts, and heavy rainfall leading to destructive floods more frequently and over a wider range, it said.
The 2015 Paris Agreement represented a significant moment of international coordination to reduce emissions and to adapt to climate change. But the UN recently announced that global action has failed to limit global heating to the 1.5 degrees agreed there.
In 2022, the IPCC warned that “any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future”.
The UK became the first country in the world to make a legally-binding national commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions in The Climate Change Act 2008. In 2019 the UK was the first major economy to enshrine its commitment to Net Zero by 2050 in law.
At COP 29 in Baku last year, the agreed target for climate finance flowing to developing countries was increased from $100 billion to at least $300 billion a year by 2035, with an aspiration for that to hit $1.3 trillion per year over the same period, in recognition of the scale of the challenge. And in 2022, the latest data available, developed countries delivered around $116 billion – over that target – to developing countries for climate action.
But the global political consensus on climate change, the financial sector’s commitment to action on climate and climate diplomacy have all been impacted by tensions and transformations in the global order.
The UK Government has stated “there is no global stability without climate stability,” that the UK “must play its part by resetting at home and reconnecting abroad,” and has placed an emphasis on re-establishing the UK “as a climate leader on the global stage.” It committed to meet the previous Government’s pledge of providing £11.6 billion in international climate finance between 2021 and 2026 – but beyond March 2026 the approach is unclear.
Through this inquiry, the Committee intends to investigate how the UK Government can best demonstrate international leadership on climate policy.
The Committee is now welcoming evidence from interested stakeholders on any of the following questions by January 7:
UK Government leadership
- How important is domestic delivery on climate action and climate governance, to the UK’s climate leadership on the global stage?
- How adequate is cooperation between the UK Government and devolved administrations in implementing, developing and presenting the UK’s international climate policy?
- How can the UK most effectively engage with the UN climate architecture in developing, establishing and implementing international climate policy?
- How do the UK’s 2030 and 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) impact domestic climate action, and how does it compare globally on NDCs?
Non-state actor involvement and leadership
What impact does the increasing involvement globally of non-state actors – such as local governments, businesses, investors, NGOs and communities – in leading on climate action have?
What role do UK non-state actors have in leading on international climate action and how cant he UK Government best support them?
Climate finance
How successful has international climate finance, and the UK Government’s contribution to it, been in supporting developing countries to respond to the challenges of climate change? What improvements could be made?
What approach should the Government take to the UK’s climate finance arrangements post-March 2026? How much difference does political uncertainty make to climate finance?
What is the balance to be struck between support for mitigation and for adaptation, and which finance instruments work best for each?
