Guidance

International Climate Finance

International Climate Finance is a UK government commitment to support developing countries to respond to the challenges and opportunities of climate change.

Climate change is a global challenge that affects us all. No country is projected to be spared from the impacts of further global temperature increases and we are already facing serious challenges to the natural environment; to food production; and to water resources. Without concerted global action to limit and manage the impact of climate change, we could reverse the huge gains in global poverty reduction which the UK has helped achieve over the last 3 decades.

UK International Climate Finance (ICF) plays a crucial role in addressing this global challenge. Three government departments have responsibility for investing the UK’s £5.8bn of ICF between 2016 and 2021:

  • Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) - formerly the Department for International Development (DfID)
  • Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
  • Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

Our ICF delivers in the national interest, delivering all 4 aims of the UK aid strategy:

  • strengthening global peace, security and governance
  • strengthening resilience and response to crises
  • promoting global prosperity
  • tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable

If we do not tackle climate change, it will undo the progress made globally to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We directly support the goals on climate action and affordable and clean energy, as well as indirectly supporting many others.

Overview

Domestically and internationally the UK is a leader on climate change. We played a pivotal role in securing the Paris Agreement in 2015, where the world came together to agree a plan to limit temperature rises to below 2 degrees. We have reduced our emissions quicker than any other country in the G20, drawing on the depth and breadth of UK low carbon knowledge and expertise and creating new economic opportunities. Since 1990 the UK economy has grown by two thirds while emissions have fallen by over 40%. We have ended UK support for unabated coal power generation and, across the world, UK businesses are helping to make the global low carbon transition a reality.

The UK honours its international obligations. Alongside other developed countries, we have committed to jointly mobilise $100bn per year in climate finance to developing countries from public and private sources. This was instrumental in securing the landmark Paris Agreement. As part of this commitment, we pledged to provide at least £5.8bn of International Climate Finance (ICF) between 2016 and 2020. This is official development assistance from FCDO, BEIS and Defra. It aims for an even split between mitigation and adaptation and places us amongst the world’s leading providers of climate finance. We have also committed up to $5bn with Germany and Norway for countries who bring forward ambitious projects to halt deforestation.

Investing our climate finance today helps reduce costs tomorrow. Every £1 invested well in climate-related risk reduction saves more than £3 (and up to £50) in avoided disaster impacts. Similarly, every pound spent cutting CO2 pays for itself between five- and twenty-fold by offsetting the future costs of climate change. Our ICF does this by:

  • building the resilience of the poorest people and communities. It supports countries to prepare for and adapt to climate change, improving how disasters are managed and reducing the harm they cause and the costs of responding

BRACED Programme, FCDO

  • working to ensure that the vast expansion in infrastructure in developing countries is low carbon and climate resilient – using our finance to build capacity and unlock greater flows of private finance towards clean growth, bringing down the costs of a global low carbon transition in the process;

Carbon Initiative for Development, World Bank Group

  • supporting work to halt deforestation and create new supply chains that are both profitable and sustainable. We help communities to use land in ways that reduce emissions and improve productivity whilst protecting and restoring forests that support important biodiversity and fragile eco-systems.

Capacity building to spot early signs of deforestation in Colombia

Upcoming statistical releases

The UK’s International Climate Finance results 2023 will be published on 28 September 2023.

Our results

Although ICF Results are not Official Statistics, where possible we follow the Code of Practice for Statistics. This UK Climate Finance results: statement of voluntary compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics (ODT, 15 KB) demonstrates the steps taken in recent years to improve the trustworthiness, quality and value of ICF Results.

We are committed to understanding and measuring the impact of our investments, and annually publish a set of key results.

View previous ICF results publications and KPI methodologies.

Evaluation

Learning is essential to achieve maximum impact and value-for-money of ICF. Under a cross-departmental ICF monitoring, evaluation and learning programme, 3 independent evaluations were externally commissioned to address evidence gaps related to ICF policy and strategy.

See the evaluations on the GOV.UK UK Climate Finance Results page.

Case studies

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs)

Solar power complex in Ouarzazate Morocco

Climate finance practitioners from around the globe are gathering in January 2019 in Morocco to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) – one of the world’s largest and most ambitious climate finance mechanisms.

Co-founded by the UK in 2008, the CIFs are designed to help developing countries transition towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development. The UK is the largest contributor, having invested £2 billion (almost $3 billion) of the $8 billion disbursed to projects that reduce emissions, support clean growth, build climate resilience and protect forests.

The event is being held at the world’s largest solar farm in Ouarzazate on the edge of the Sahara Desert. This groundbreaking 500 MW Concentrated Solar Power complex, which UK funding helped establish, supplies clean power to 1.1 million Moroccans. Its sheer scale has driven down the costs of this cutting-edge technology by 50%, enabling the Moroccan government to raise its renewables energy target to 42% by 2020. 

Over the past 10 years, the CIFs have funded over 300 projects in more than 70 countries and are expected to:

  • deliver 26.5 GW of new clean power - more than the total power capacity of the Netherlands
  • provide 8.5 million people with improved access to energy - equivalent to the population of Sierra Leone
  • place 36 million hectares of forests under improved management - equivalent to the area of Germany
  • support 45 million people to cope with the effects of climate change - more than the population of Sudan.

UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions)

The UK PACT Programme: market engagement event

UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) is a bilateral capacity building programme, delivered through the UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF). The programme responds to the critical global need to build the capacity of countries to accelerate the implementation of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

UK PACT will work with high-emission, high-ambition developing countries, with £60 million between 2018 and 2021, through bilateral programmes, skill-shares and a global challenge fund.

UK PACT’s programme objectives are to:

  • work with partner countries seeking to improve the capacity and capability of key institutions (public, private, and civil society) to reduce emissions and poverty
  • focus on implementation and climate ambition, by addressing barriers, constraints and areas of opportunity at different levels of government based on the country’s political and economic context and sectoral priorities

UK PACT is funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA) and supports the UK government’s development objectives of alleviating poverty, through the acceleration of climate mitigation, in line with the COP 21 Paris Agreement.

UK PACT also raises visibility of the UK’s work on climate change internationally, including in areas of UK strength, such as green finance and climate legislation. The UK reduced emissions quicker than any other country in the G20, whilst growing its economy. It has committed to reduce our emissions to net zero by 2050. There are significant lessons for us to share from this process, as well as to learn from other countries.

Delivery model

UK PACT is demand-driven and utilises a strong presence on the ground to build partnerships with governments, to identify opportunities with potential for transformational impact and to complement wider International Climate Finance and ODA programmes.

It is designed to be flexible and adaptive, with 3 core components to its delivery model. BEIS has procured a delivery partner to lead the delivery of each component:

  • bilateral country-specific programme funds: BEIS has partnered with Palladium International Limited to deliver the bilateral programme, which will support innovative projects in our partner countries to provide capacity building in line with our partner countries’ priorities

  • skill shares and secondments: BEIS has partnered with PA Consulting Services Limited to deliver this programme, which will provide both short-term peer-to-peer skill shares with country counterparts, and long-term secondments into key institutions

  • Challenge Fund: BEIS has partnered with ICF Consulting Services Limited to deliver the Challenge Fund, which will provide support for innovative capacity building projects in a wider range of ODA-eligible countries to promote emissions reductions and low carbon solutions

Calls for proposals

Active calls for proposals

There are currently no active Calls for Proposals – please check back soon.

Past calls for proposals

Sustainable Energy for Women and Girls (SEWG) programme

Powering Health Care: Phoebe’s Story

The Sustainable Energy for Women and Girls (SEWG) programme aims to support a shift in the way clean energy markets operate, with a focus on improving access to and awareness of clean energy options, supporting health, safety and economic opportunities for women and girls in developing countries. One of the strands of this work, a health facility electrification project managed by the United Nations Foundation, is powering primary health clinics with solar energy solutions, where there is no electricity access or where it is unreliable. Funded by SEWG using the UK’s International Climate Finance, it is delivering power to 62 clinics across Uganda and Ghana.

By installing a reliable, renewable energy source in these clinics, women can more safely give birth at night in well-lit delivery rooms, whereas previously mid-wives used mobile phone torch light to deliver babies and administer care to patients. Medical equipment can also be more effectively sterilised, and clinics can preserve vaccines and other medicines.

Phoebe, the Assistant Nurse in charge of one of the health centres with the new solar panels said:

I chose to become a midwife because my mother was saved by doctors and I felt like I owed a debt to help. I came to this clinic 4 years ago, but for a long time, many women didn’t come here. We didn’t have any electricity. Mothers would die while giving birth at night. All of us were afraid. The electricity has really helped us. We’re now able to carry out all main operations. The community knows about the electricity and they are coming here now. The power provides access anytime.

Improving Resilience in South Sudan (IRISS), BRACED

Improving Resilience in South Sudan (IRISS), BRACED

According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, South Sudan is amongst the most vulnerable countries in the world and projections indicate that the impact of global warming there will be felt 2.5 times more than the global average. Over 90% of the people in South Sudan are reliant on climate sensitive sectors for their livelihoods and climate change could have a major negative impact on their income.

The Improving Resilience in South Sudan programme (IRISS), funded by ICF, builds community resilience to floods and droughts in South Sudan. It works with communities to develop knowledge and skills so that they can produce long lasting sources of food and reduce their dependence on aid. Through a combination of new farming techniques, vegetable gardening and village savings and loan associations, IRISS helps community members to build climate-resilient agriculture skills to take back to their villages and farms.

The training and provision of tools and seeds funded by this programme has expanded the availability of food, from the traditional harvest of just one major cereal crop, to an almost continuous harvest of vegetables throughout the year. So far, it has trained over 2,900 people in climate resilient agriculture techniques.

Read more about this, and other resilience programmes – Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters.

The Clean Technology Fund (CTF)

Empowering a Greener Future through Clean Technologies

Climate-friendly energy can reduce poverty and build economic growth in developing countries. That’s why the UK works with the CTF to finance large-scale renewable energy technologies like solar power, and to promote energy efficiency. The success of the Fund’s programmes shows others, including the private sector, that climate smart technology is worth investing in.

The Clean Technology Fund (CTF). Photo credit: World Bank Group/ Abengoas Solar

South Africa’s KaXu Solar One Concentrated Solar Power project, with funding from the CTF, recently won an award from the United Nations for it’s approach to tackling climate change. The plant works by using around 330,000 mirrors to reflect and concentrate the sun’s rays, generating enough renewable energy to power 80,000 South African households. It is expected to save around 315,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, equivalent to taking 66,000 cars off the road. Not only this, KaXu is also helping stimulate the local economy. Since 2012, the plant has generated over 1,700 jobs in the Northern Cape, a province with a high rate of youth unemployment.

The local community also benefit through a 20% equity stake. Dividends from this support local education, health and housing initiatives that will benefit the livelihoods of some of South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens.

Clean Technology Fund

Blue Forests Programme

Blue Forests video

Mangrove forests are some of the most effective habitats on earth at storing carbon which could otherwise be released as carbon dioxide and so contribute to global warming. As well as supporting endangered species and absorbing carbon dioxide, they perform a range of other ecosystem services such as storm protection, prevention of coastal erosion and climate change adaption and resilience for the hundreds of millions of people that rely on them.

Still, they are one of the world’s most threatened tropical ecosystems. Less than 1% of the remaining mangrove forests are adequately protected. Their loss erodes coastlines and reduces the ability of poor communities on these coastlines to cope with the impacts of climate change.

Madagascar houses Africa’s third largest expanse of mangrove forests. Secure management and legal barriers are needed to stop unregulated and unsustainable exploitation of the mangroves.

Blue Forests Programme

The Blue Forests project, supported by UK ICF, will reduce mangrove loss by working with local communities, the private sector and the government. It will explore green business opportunities based on sustainable mangrove forestry and fisheries management. Coastal communities then benefit through increased resilience to climate change and the conservation of threatened marine biodiversity.

The project is expected to protect 20,000 ha of mangroves through community forest management and benefit over 100,000 forest dependent people with the development of multiple sustainable livelihoods.

Blue Forests Programme

The Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP)

The Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP)

Virunga Power, an African developer, investor, and operator of renewable power projects and rural distribution grids, wanted to develop two river-based mini hydro-power plants in the Murang’a and Bungoma counties of Kenya. To get these projects off the ground they needed to show private investors that the projects would be sound and successful.

The UK is the sole funder of REPP, an organisation focused on providing access to financial and technical assistance. Partnering with REPP allowed Virunga Power to carry out activities like environmental impact assessments and feasibility studies. This addressed concerns of potential investors and the project is now expected to attract significant private and public finance. At the same time, it demonstrates that small scale renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa are a viable investment.

These 2 power plants will provide improved access to clean electricity to around 340,000 people in rural communities, helping to stimulate rural economic growth. REPP is now working with partners to develop more hydro, biomass and solar power projects in Kenya which could power 18,000 homes.

For more information visit: Renewable Energy Performance Platform

Further information on ICF projects can be found on [https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/).

Contact details

For further details about the ICF, get in touch with FCDO, BEIS or Defra using the contact details below.

fcdo.correspondence@fcdo.gov.uk / 020 7008 5000

ukicf@beis.gov.uk

Defra Contact Form / 03459 33 55 77

Further information

Access to funding

There is currently no direct route through which an organisation outside of the UK Government can independently develop a project to be considered for ICF funding. We recommend that in-country projects apply to the delivery partners that we invest in for funding.

External review

The work of ICF was last reviewed by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact in 2014. You can read details of the review below -

UK reporting of ICF Spend

Government departments

ICF is a cross-government collaboration led by 3 different departments. Find out more on the wider work of each department:

Published 13 June 2018
Last updated 31 August 2023 + show all updates
  1. The UK's international climate finance results 2023 will be published on 28 September 2023.

  2. New consultation added on proposals to change reporting for UK International Climate Finance results. Respond by 13 August 2023.

  3. Updated the document 'UK Climate Finance results: statement of voluntary compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics'

  4. Link to new UK climate finance results 2021 added.

  5. 2020 UK Climate Finance Results published.

  6. UK Pact details and objectives updated.

  7. 2019 UK Climate Finance Results and updated infographic added

  8. UK International Climate Finance booklet added.

  9. Added case study: Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs).

  10. New name for TAP - UK PACT

  11. First published.