Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the cost to the public purse was of the UK Africa Investment Summit held on 20 January 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by James Duddridge
I can report that the final cost of the UK Africa Investment Summit held on 20 January was £3.14 million. Of this, 83% (£2.62 million) was ODA and 17% (£0.52 million) was non-ODA. This event delivered over £6.5 billion worth of commercial investments in infrastructure, energy, retail and tech; and the Government announced over £1.5 billion of UK aid-funded initiatives that are expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and mobilise over £2.4 billion of additional private investment for the continent.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps he is taking to ensure that Official Development Assistance is not used for development that causes climate change.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Government published the Green Finance Strategy in July 2019, which included our commitment to align all UK Official Development Assistance with the Paris Agreement. This reflected our commitment to put climate change at the heart of our development programmes. Our commitment to doubling our international climate finance to £11.6 billion over the years 21/22 to 25/26 means that we will be investing more UK aid in low carbon development such as clean energy, and assisting poorer countries to anticipate and manage the unavoidable impacts of climate change.