Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of her Department's aid budget is being spent on environmental projects; and whether the objectives of the 25 Year Environment Plan will be taken into account in future aid spending.

The Department for International Development (DFID) is working closely with other Government Departments as part of a comprehensive Government effort to protect the environment. The Government has committed £5.8bn (2016-2021) to tackle climate change, the biggest environmental challenge of our time. DFID will deliver £3.6bn of this commitment. In 2016/2017, this was £755m, 7% of DFID’s total spend. DFID and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs fund, alongside other countries, the $4.43 billion Global Environment Facility sixth replenishment (2014 – 2018) which works to address climate change as well as broader environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, land degradation, international waters and chemicals and waste. All relevant Government commitments, including the 25 Year Environment Plan, are taken into account when considering future aid spending. In addition, all DFID programmes must avoid doing harm to the environment, and environmental safeguards are one of the risk categories considered as part of departmental programme management requirements.