Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to identify innovative sources of finance for funding climate-related loss and damage.

The UK seeks to enable action to avert, minimise and address loss and damage, particularly in countries most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. As incoming COP 26 Presidency the UK is pressing donors to meet and surpass their commitment to provide $100bn in climate finance to developing countries. The UK has increased its International Climate Finance to £11.6bn over five years. This includes finance for adaptation relevant to averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage.

The UK supports innovative approaches in a number of areas, including disaster risk reduction and support for regional insurance schemes. Most recently, at the G7 Summit, the UK announced £120m of support with Germany committing €125m of funding to regional disaster protection schemes across Africa, South East Asia, the Caribbean and Pacific, to protect the lives and livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people against climate risks. This new funding contributes to the Risk Informed Early Action Partnership (REAP) target of making 1 billion people safer from disasters by 2025. Our commitment to spend £3bn of our ICF on nature also recognises the importance of healthy ecosystems and the role of nature-based solutions in building resilience to the impacts of climate change.