We have joined 85 other leading organisers adding their name to CAN UK’s letter calling for Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister, to increase climate finance, not cut it. Given the national security threats exasperated by biodiveristy loss and climate crisis, this is the moment for Climate leadership.
Read the full letter below
The Rt. Honourable Keir Starmer,Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
10 Downing Street London
SW1A 2AA
2 nd March 2026
Dear Prime Minister, As 86 UK civil society and faith organisations, from large international NGOs to local groups, collectively representing millions of UK supporters, we are writing to urge you to rethink your approach to international climate finance and show you are doubling down on the fight against climate change. We are at a critical juncture in the climate crisis, where the UK must not take the path of inaction and delay that leads to further decline and vulnerability, but instead the UK must play a critical role in securing a thriving future for everyone in the UK and around the world.
In May, we wrote to you calling for an ambitious fourth round of UK international climate finance and to introduce measures to generate the new public finance needed for this by fairly taxing the largest polluters and wealthiest in our society. However, recent media reports suggest that your government plans to cut international climate finance.
Such a cut would be a massive betrayal of countries and communities on the frontline of the climate crisis and of your government’s manifesto commitments to the UK public to be a climate leader and to create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet. The UK’s provision of international climate finance is absolutely central to living up to these manifesto commitments – but if the reports are true – just £9bn over five years from the fifth largest historical emitter and the sixth largest economy on earth, falls far short of these commitments and of basic fairness. This is even more stark given the evidence that in the UK, tens of billions of pounds a year could be collected from the wealthiest and largest polluters in our society, and currently are not.
Climate change is undeniable – we see its impacts all around us – yet the worst effects are falling on those who are the least responsible for its causes and who are paying the greatest costs with their lives, livelihoods, health, homes, lands, ecosystems, infrastructure, and futures. This is an unacceptable injustice – and one that must be addressed through the provision of adequate climate finance.
Costs are also falling on UK households, who now pay more for the food we import due to climate change, with an estimated £360 added to the average UK household food bill in 2022-23. One of the important areas of spending for climate finance is to enable farmers in lower-income countries to be able to adapt to climate change to ensure reliable and affordable food production. This benefits us all.
Doubling down on the fight against climate change through the provision of climate finance is in the UK’s interest to secure better lives for everyone – greater action is needed, as made clear in your government’s national security assessment published this month – but it is also a moral responsibility and a legal obligation, as reiterated in last year’s International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change. Countries with the greatest responsibility for climate change must provide the finance to address it, and at a scale that matches the need. £9bn over five years – with much of it double-counted humanitarian spending and Multilateral Development Bank contributions – does not come close to matching the UK’s responsibilities in international law, the UK’s fair share of the needs, or keeping the public safe.
Successive cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) have led to this cut, yet climate finance was agreed in good faith by countries – including the UK – as being provided in addition to ODA commitments. Taking this from ODA was justified by the UK at a time when ODA was growing – set in law at 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) – and therefore did not divert spending from other crucial development and humanitarian priorities. This can no longer be justified with ODA cut to just 0.3% of GNI and at a 25-year low – potentially worse cuts even than the US – this approach to climate finance does divert spending from other lifesaving and poverty reduction needs, while at the same time the costs and devastating impacts of inaction and insufficient action to fight climate change falling on communities continue to grow.
To keep pace with the crisis, previous UK climate finance commitments doubled the last – a scale-up absolutely necessary given the magnitude of the climate emergency and the UK’s legal obligations. Yours would be the first UK government to cut not double, if climate finance is reduced from £11.6bn to £9bn for the next five years, instead of increased to at least £23.2bn. This amount is more than achievable despite the many demands on the public purse, through the implementation of fair polluter pays measures such as taxing high-emitting luxury travel, a proportion of proceeds from a fair tax on extreme wealth, a frequent flyer levy, and redirecting fossil fuel producer subsidies, which through various measures could fairly raise in the region of £23bn or £37bn a year for climate action at home and overseas without unfairly costing UK households.
Polling consistently shows that the UK public support raising finance for climate action from fair taxation:
• 85% say those most responsible for climate pollution should shoulder the costs of addressing the harm it causes (YouGov / Friends of the Earth, March 2025).
• Nearly eight in ten people (79%) in the UK believe governments must tax oil, gas, and coal corporations for the environmental damages they cause, such as wildfires, flooding, and drought (Dynata / Greenpeace and Oxfam, June 2025).
In your own words, “There is no national security, there is no economic security, there is no global security, without climate security.” A fact underscored in the national security assessment that warned “cascading risks of ecosystem degradation are likely to include geopolitical instability, economic insecurity, conflict, migration and increased inter-state competition for resources.”Doubling down on the fight against climate change is vital to ensure better lives for everyone in the UK and around the world. Therefore, we call on you to fulfil your manifesto commitment to climate leadership and to keep this country’s promise to provide new and additional finance to those on the frontline of the climate crisis, by increasing the UK’s provision of international climate finance at this critical juncture for action, not cutting it.
We request a meeting with you on this urgent issue at the earliest opportunity.
Yours sincerely, Catherine Pettengell Executive Director, Climate Action Network UK (CAN-UK) Sent on behalf of the following 86 UK civil society organisations:
