Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are discussing climate and environment issues with any less economically developed country with the aim of increasing any such country's investment in clean energy and green technologies.

We cannot meet Sustainable Development Goal 7 or the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement without a clean energy transition that leaves no-one behind. As COP26 President, the UK has made clean energy transition one of the five thematic campaigns underpinning COP26. We want to ensure that developing countries are able to access the investment and assistance they need to transition to clean power, which will be crucial in helping those countries achieve more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions. The COP26 Energy Transition Council is facilitating dialogue between countries seeking energy transition support and the major international actors offering that support, to find and implement solutions more rapidly.

The doubling of the UK's International Climate Finance (ICF) to £11.6 billion between 2021/22 and 2025/26 includes up to £1 billion for developing and testing new technology in areas such as energy storage, renewable energy, low carbon and electric transport, and industrial decarbonisation. This funding for innovation is targeted at driving forward the clean energy transition in developing countries, by creating and demonstrating new technologies and business models to deploy them.

As part of a wider ICF energy portfolio, FCDO is also investing £38 million in the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) research programme to support developing countries to accelerate their transition to green energy while growing their economies. CCG will provide data, tools and evidence to inform country policies and investments in clean energy and transport infrastructure, helping to ensure that developing countries adopt a growth path that is sustainable for decades to come.