Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the letter to the President of COP26 of 30 June 2021 from 66 organisations in the human and environmental health sector, if the Government will take steps to adapt UK Government supported climate funding mechanisms to encourage climate adaptation and resilience building programmes that remove barriers to family planning and girls’ education.
Voluntary family planning and girls' education have wide-ranging benefits for individuals and societies, including supporting their adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. The UK is fulfilling our pledge to provide £5.8 billion in international climate finance (ICF) to developing countries, and we are committed to doubling our ICF to £11.6 billion over the next five years. Our recently published COP Presidency paper 'Priorities for Public Climate Finance' sets out gender-responsive climate finance as a UK priority, which we are championing as COP26 Presidency and through the G7.