COP27: UK PM Rishi Sunak Announces Major Climate Package, Hands over Baton to Egypt
On Monday, November 7, 2022, when he passed the torch to Egypt at COP27, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, solidified the UK's COP legacy with a number of announcements on energy transition, climate financing, and forest and wildlife protection.
COP27: UK PM Rishi Sunak Announces Major Climate Package, Hands over Baton to Egypt
On Monday, November 7, 2022, when he passed the torch to Egypt at COP27, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, solidified the UK’s COP legacy with a number of announcements on energy transition, climate financing, and forest and wildlife protection.
He stated that the UK continues to fulfill significant financial commitments, investing £11.6 billion in global climate finance. The Government will pledge to triple money for climate adaptation as part of that budget, from £500 million in 2019 to £1.5 billion in 2025, in recognition of the existential threat climate change is already posing around the world, from catastrophic floods in Pakistan to drought in Somalia.
The Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership was also established by the prime minister. The new group will meet twice a year to track pledges on the historic Forests and Land Use declaration at COP26, which seeks to stop and reverse forest loss by 2030. The group will initially consist of 20 countries.
The Congo Basin is a crucial tropical rainforest that is home to around 10,000 kinds of tropical plants and several endangered animals, including forest elephants, chimpanzees, and mountain gorillas. To support the forest agenda, the UK is providing £90 million towards conservation in the Congo Basin.
The PM also announced fresh funding for Treevive, which is striving to protect and restore two million hectares of tropical forest, and £65 million for the Nature, People, and Climate Investment Fund, which assists local and indigenous forest communities.
“As we transfer the COP Presidency, the Government is particularly keen on working with the corporate sector to support green innovation and the global transition to clean energy. In addition to advancing the goal of net zero, he continued, lowering the demand for oil and gas globally deprives Russia’s terrible war machine of funding.
The Prime Minister also announced an additional £65.5 million in support of this for the Clean Energy Innovation Facility, which awards funding to academics and researchers in developing nations to hasten the advancement of clean technology.
Since the BEIS-led fund’s inception in 2019, it has sponsored, among other innovations, the development of clean hydrogen-based fuels for steel production in Morocco, prototype lithium-ion batteries in Nigeria, and biomass-powered refrigeration in India.
On Monday, November 7, 2022, at the 27th session of the Conference of Parties, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the President of the Republic, joined Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to announce the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) (COP27).
The globe gathered in Glasgow for COP27 with one final opportunity to develop a strategy that would keep increases in global temperature to 1.5 degrees, according to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Can we muster the collective will to keep such pledges is the question of the day. I think we can. We can transform our fight against climate change into a global initiative for new jobs and clean growth by keeping the commitments we made in Glasgow. And we can leave our children with a cleaner environment and a better future. We should be proud of that legacy, he continued.
“The UK is working with G7 allies to give countries with trustworthy, transparent sources of sustainable infrastructure funding,” he continued, “as well as encouraging innovation.”
The Nexus on Food, Water, and Energy, which is Egypt’s leading COP27 effort, has received new financial backing, according to Sunak. The investment is intended to mobilize billions in private sector financing and will be used to construct projects like solar parks and new energy storage technologies.
#COP27 His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, Ms. Ursula @vonderLeyen, Prime Minister @RishiSunak of the United Kingdom, President @EmmanuelMacron of the Republic of France, and German Chancellor @OlafScholz pic.twitter.com/rVRCOTHZSU
bilateral encounters
Later, the Prime Minister met with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, and Georgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, during the COP27 conference.
PM Sunak with President Macron of France
The Prime Minister highlighted that the UK and Kenya have reaffirmed their commitment to the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership and agreed to forward a number of key green investment initiatives while meeting with President William Ruto.
A large Public-Private Partnership on the $3 billion Grand High Falls Dam hydropower project, managed by UK firm GBM Engineering, and new and expanded solar and geothermal power facilities in Kenya are among the projects. These are supported by British International Investment.
President Ruto meets with PM Rishi Sunak
He then spoke at a roundtable discussion on energy transition partnerships and outlined the UK’s climate commitments in a national plenary statement.
These included: Disaster Risk Financing of $20.7 million to assist nations that experience climate-related disasters in affording insurance and gaining access to stable funding; Disaster Adaptation Support of $13 million to Assist Vulnerable Nations in Adapting to Climate Impacts; Disaster Adaptation Support of £95 million to Assist Vulnerable Nations in Developing Climate-Resilient Agriculture Programs in Nigeria.
The UK and Colombia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to continue their “Partnership for Sustainable Growth,” advancing bilateral climate change cooperation and stepping up efforts to preserve and restore biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic habitats.
Today at the @COP27P in Egypt, the Prime Minister @RishiSunak met with the President of the European Commission @vonderleyen, His Highness the President of the UAE @MohamedBinZayed, and the Prime Minister of Italy @GiorgiaMeloni.
