UK international green finance ‘has slashed global emissions by 10.4m tonnes’

This is approximately equivalent to the yearly emissions of 2.5 million cars

The UK’s international contributions to funding clean energy have helped reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 10.4 million tonnes since 2011.

That’s according to the latest round of International Climate Finance (ICF) results released by government, which suggest this is approximately equivalent to the yearly emissions of 2.5 million cars.

The figures illustrate the impact of British investments in tackling climate change and helping developing countries build resilience to its potential impacts.

The UK has committed to spend at least £5.8 billion on this effort between 2016 and 2021 – it has already supported 47 million people to cope with the effects of climate change, a figure equivalent to the entire population of Spain.

The report shows the UK has also provided 17 million people with improved access to clean energy, installed 590MW of clean energy capacity and mobilised £3.3 billion public and £910 million private climate finance in developing countries.

Environment Minister, Thérèse Coffey, said: “The UK continues to demonstrate our leadership in dealing with global environmental issues.

“These results demonstrate the importance of international climate finance and the impacts that we can have worldwide when we deliver this finance effectively.”

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