Question

To ask the President of COP26, what steps he is taking to work with the UNFCCC to help ensure that the money pledged for nature at COP26 is (a) spent (i) effectively and (ii) transparently and (b) goes to frontline communities; and what estimate he has made of when that funding will be made available.

At COP26, 141 countries committed to halting and reversing forest loss and land degradation by 2030 in the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use, this is underpinned by almost $20 billion of public and private finance. In the activities supported by the pledge we will promote the full, effective, and willing participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in programmes that protect and restore forests, reduce deforestation and forest degradation, and we will work to ensure that benefits reach smallholders and local communities.

At COP26 the UK launched in partnership with Fiji a Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance, to improve access to financial flows for the most vulnerable. This proposes a new approach which aims to deliver a transformational step change in access at the national and local levels and to spur a related shift in the wider public climate finance architecture, improving the predictability, flexibility, transparency, affordability, and speed of disbursement of climate finance.