Keir Starmer’s help cuts threaten to undermine the British climate mission – Politico

A full week, the government is unable to say what impact reduction would have on international climate funding – a key board of British green diplomacy through which money is invested in poor countries to help them build cleaner energy systems or protect against the effects of climate change.

“It is too early to be able to respond,” the Minister of Energy Philip Hunt said on Monday in the House of Lords. Hunt could only point to the government’s expenses, due in June, when more details could be published.

Last year, the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, promised that the United Kingdom would intensify and will fill “a leadership emptiness” on global climate policy. But the government’s representatives have repeatedly refused to say when asked by Politico, if Downing Street had consulted Miliband or his department before announcing the cuts.

Miliband represents the United Kingdom during international climate summits and is jointly responsible with Foreign Affairs Secretary David Lammy for Great Britain’s efforts to bring the rest of the world on the road to Net Zero. His department had the fifth largest expenditure of foreign aid in the British government, 440 million pounds sterling in 2023.

“This reduction was carried out at number 10,” said Nick Mabey, director general of the E3G climate reflection group and former advisor to several British governments. “It was a high -level high -level political decision.”

The international intermediate development committee of the Parliament criticized the impact of the cuts on Wednesday morning, quoting the blow of “global efforts to combat poverty, inequalities and climate change”.