Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the report entitled A False Promise of Prosperity, published by Platform in October of 2018.

The Prosperity Fund has considered the findings of the report; we are confident the Prosperity Fund programmes are consistent with the UK government’s commitments, under the Paris Agreement.

Within the portfolio, there are a considerable number of programmes where we are working with partner countries to increase their resilience to climate change, to reduce emissions, and to transition to a sustainable low carbon economy.

The Fund’s energy related initiatives do not directly finance oil and gas exploration or production. They aim to help create policy and business environments that improve energy access, strengthen energy markets, encourage investment and promote energy efficiency. In turn this will improve energy security, and enable a faster transition to a cleaner, low carbon economy. This is consistent with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5^oC that oil and gas will continue to be an essential part of the global energy mix as we transition to a low carbon economy.