Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: climate change impact in developing countries

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-the-impact-of-climate-change-in-developing-countries Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue:

Climate change is already affecting the world’s poorest countries. For example, changing rainfall patterns contribute to more frequent and severe flooding in Bangladesh or drought and crop failure in African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya.

As well as being the first to be affected, the poorest are also hit hardest because they are less equipped to cope with the effects of climate change.

We need to help poor countries adapt to climate change so that they can continue to develop and lift themselves out of poverty.

Actions:

The government has set up the International Climate Fund (ICF) to provide £3.87 billion between April 2011 and March 2015 to help the world’s poorest adapt to climate change and promote cleaner, greener growth.

To help poor countries prepare for and deal with the impact of climate change, we’re:

  • funding programmes to help developing countries to find new ways of coping with a changing climate
  • funding research into the impacts of climate change

We’re also taking international action to mitigate climate change, including:

  • supporting developing countries to invest in clean technologies
  • working to stop deforestation and improve the livelihoods of people who depend on forests
  • attending major international conferences on climate change, including the UN climate negotiations, in order to influence decision makers and secure positive outcomes for the world’s poorest people

Background

We all depend on a healthy environment, but it’s the world’s poorest people and the world’s poorest countries – those who are also least responsible - that have most to lose from climate change. Long before the creation of the International Climate Fund, we’ve been taking account of the impact of climate change in our overseas aid programmes and have been funding projects which directly help the poorest people to deal with these impacts.

At the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to provide $30 billion - known as Fast Start finance - from 2010 to 2012 to help developing countries mitigate climate change and deal with the impacts. The UK government provided £1.5 billion from 2010 to 2012.

Appendix 1: helping developing countries to find new ways of coping with a changing climate

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Coping with the effects of climate change is known as “adaptation”. This means taking actions and making investments such as households managing the supply and storage of water more efficiently, farmers using crops which can survive drought, or communities ensuring schools and hospitals are flood resistant.

For poor people, adaptation to the impacts of climate change means that regardless of weather conditions now and in the future, they have enough food and water, they have somewhere to shelter and they have access to community services like health and education

Poor countries must adapt to climate change so that they maintain what has already been achieved through international development and so that they can grow economically. Governments need to agree support for adaptation as part of a global climate change deal, and to build up knowledge and experience of how to adapt.

What we are doing

Through the international development programmes and research that we fund, we are increasing the knowledge and evidence available on climate change and helping people put it into practice. We are putting more funding into programmes that directly address issues impacted such as agriculture, cities and infrastructure, water resources and disaster risk reduction. We’re making national and international climate change institutions, governance and mechanisms simpler, more transparent and more efficient.

Water Security Programme

Our Water Security Programme seeks to increase secure access to water resources by poor people. This programme will seek to directly benefit more than 18 million poor people through improving access to water services including water for drinking, sanitation and irrigation. Many more people will indirectly benefit through improved water governance.

South Asia Water Governance Programme

We fund the South Asia Water Governance Programme to help countries work together to manage the Himalayan rivers for the benefit of 500 million people who live in the river basins. The programme is jointly funded by the UK, Australia, Norway, the World Bank, and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

Chars Livelihoods Programme

In Bangladesh, we fund the Chars Livelihoods Programme to help the extreme poor – especially women – build livelihoods that are more resilient to climate change. Between 2009 and 2013, the programme has helped to raise 67,000 homes onto earth platforms, protecting hundreds of thousands of people and their possessions from severe monsoon floods.

Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme

We fund the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme which will operate in up to 40 countries and invest in practices and knowledge to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. Our support is expected to benefit 6 million small-holder farmers.

We also help developing countries to adapt to climate change through our contributions to international adaptation funds such as the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience, the Adaptation Fund and the Least Developed Countries Fund.

Appendix 2: supporting developing countries to invest in clean technologies

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Global CO2 emissions have risen by 2.7% each year in the past 100 years and 3.3% each year in the last 5 years on average.

Developed countries need to act first and fastest, but low carbon development is also crucial for developing countries. It is important that we work with major emerging economies to help them avoid being locked in to the use of old technologies.

We need to identify where low carbon development can support economic growth and benefit poor people. For example, giving people access to renewable energy has health benefits from a reduction in local air pollution. It can reduce the amount people have to spend on fuels like kerosene, or save them time they would otherwise have to spend collecting fuel.

Improved energy supplies can also increase people’s incomes in rural areas and lead to new jobs in sectors such as agro-processing.

What we’re doing

We work in a range of ways to support low carbon development in our aid programmes.

Low carbon growth

We encourage developing countries to explore new ways of stimulating economic growth that allow them to prosper in ways that emit fewer greenhouse gases.

For example, we support the Results Based Financing for Low Carbon Energy Access programme. The programme aims to expand the market for clean energy technologies such as solar lanterns and cooking stoves.

Energy efficiency

We support projects that make vehicles, buildings and industrial equipment use energy more efficiently.

Low carbon energy

We support programmes using solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power. For example, the Clean Technology Fund helps developing countries to reduce or avoid carbon emissions through the demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies.

Clean technology innovation

We are funding work to help developing countries accelerate innovations in low carbon technologies. This will lead to the creation of new jobs and businesses and contribute to economic growth. For example, we are supporting the development of Climate Innovation Centres, such as the one in Kenya. This supports individuals and small businesses that need technical, financial or business support to develop their products and grow their businesses.

Finance sector

We are working to ensure that private finance investments are made in developing countries at a scale needed to meet the climate change challenge. For example, the Climate Public Private Partnership uses a public-private partnership structure to encourage new forms of private sector finance, such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, into climate investments by showing that these investments are financially viable.

Climate Investment Funds

We contribute £1.1 billion to the $7.2 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), a trust fund that aims to reduce poverty and help developing countries respond to climate change.

The CIFs’ objectives are to:

  • help developing countries to improve their economies through low-emissions growth and climate-resilient development

  • raise resources from the public and private sector – over $40 billion is expected to be raised

  • learn lessons for future climate financing

Appendix 3: research into the impacts of climate change in developing countries

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Research is vital to both understand how climate conditions will affect vulnerable groups in developing countries, but also to help identify and capitalise on any emerging livelihood or growth opportunities created by environmental and climate change.

DFID funds research on how climate change and environmental issues affect poor people and what can be done about it.

The examples below illustrate the scope of our work in this area.

Adapting to climate change

A recently completed project, Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA) funded jointly with the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) tested and identified many local solutions to climate climate change for vulnerable groups, such as women and children, in low income communities across Africa.

Innovation

We fund research to help deliver pay-as-you-go energy technology that allows poor consumers to buy energy using mobile phones.

Water supply

We fund research to improve access to and management of underground water in Africa, designed to enable around 9 million poor people to gain sustainable access to improved water supplies and increase the role groundwater can play in Africa’s economic development. This builds on earlier DFID-funded work that mapped the hidden sea of groundwater in Africa.

Climate science

We are developing a climate science research programme for the medium to long-term (10 to 30 years). This programme will aim to improve our understanding of two areas:

  • the atmospheric and physical processes which shape African climate

  • the scale of the effects of projected climate change over different regions of sub-Saharan Africa

This research will result in better climate predictions and modelling, improved evidence data and information to estimate the likely impacts and risks associated with climate change and better planning by policymakers.

We are also funding the Climate Science Research Partnership with the Met Office’s Hadley Centre to improve our understanding of what determines the climate in Africa, and incorporate this knowledge in the latest climate models.

Bringing climate research and international development together

We fund the Climate and Development Knowledge Network which helps developing countries deliver development that takes account of climate change. Operating in over 40 countries, it helps public, private and non-governmental decision-makers to develop new policies, introduce new technologies and get funding.