Oral Answers to Questions

Toby Perkins Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman is entirely accurate about the effects of climate change on very vulnerable people in Bangladesh, where only a fairly small rise in the water level could wipe out hundreds of thousands of homes. We are directly involved in protecting 15 million vulnerable people from those effects of climate change, and we will continue—through, for example, the development of scuba rice, which grows in very difficult circumstances—to target malnutrition.

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

6. What steps he plans to take to assess the value for money of aid expenditure on climate change projects.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Mr Stephen O’Brien)]

Value for money is a process, not a one-off event. The value for money of climate change projects is assessed during design and appraisal, during implementation and, for a sample of completed projects, through evaluation.

[Toby Perkins]

It is vital at this time that we get absolute value for every penny we spend, but the Minister will be aware that 70% of CO₂ emissions come from developed countries, whereas the World Bank estimates that 80% of the damage will be suffered by the developing world. After the Durban climate change conference, what steps will be taken to ensure that new and additional clauses are not dropped from climate change financing?

[Mr O’Brien]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to imply that the effects of climate change have a continually damaging effect on the poorest people of the world. Therefore, we hope that the discussions that have taken place in Durban will produce the success and the architecture that are required. However, there have been some announcements, particularly as part of Fast Start, to help people from developing countries around the world to adapt to the effects of climate change. That will be through the UN adaptation fund or the least-developed countries fund, and will be particularly for climate resilience programmes in both Ethiopia and Kenya. There is therefore a significant focus on the poorest.