The United Kingdom has said its funding of £74 million will extend clean cooking access to additional 10 million people in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.
According to the Government in a publication on Thursday stated that this funding will be announced by the Minister for Development, Anneliese Dodds at the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Globally, around 2.1 billion people still have to cook on firewood, charcoal or other polluting fuels, often worsening the health of many women and girls in particular, and damaging forests.
The Minister said, “This package will support 10 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Indo-Pacific to leave coal and wood cooking behind, helping the environment while also improving the health of women, girls who are so often exposed to damaging fumes from burning coal and wood.
“Nothing could be more central to UK’s own national interest than delivering progress on arresting rising temperatures. This is our chance to achieve clean and secure energy, both globally and at home, and, in doing so, drive growth for the UK”, Dodds added.
The statement further said UK ministers are seeking to encourage ambitious emissions reductions and agreements that take needs of the Global South into account while also growing the UK’s economy and maximising opportunities for Britain.It analysed that £44 million of the clean cooking package will come from a five-year extension to the UK government’s Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme up to 2030.
Adding that the remaining £30m will come through the Ayrton Fund, which aims to accelerate the clean energy transition in Global South countries.
Alongside this, it stated further that the Minister will announce a $16m investment by British International Investment (BII) into Africa Go Green, a fund backing early stage businesses taking climate action in Africa including accelerating access to clean cooking solutions.It revealed that the Minister also announced at COP29 a boost to support the Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) programme in Africa.
WISER sees the UK Met Office partner with meteorological organisations across Africa to increase countries’ capacity to forecast and plan for extreme weather events and climate change.
According to the Government, Additional funding of £30m from the UK will support farmers,.communities in adapting to a changing climate. This brings total funding up to £47m.This aligns with the modern approach to development outlined by Minister Dodds at Chatham House in October, based on working in partnership with the Global South.
This is additional to a £6m commitment to launch Jahez, a project supporting climate vulnerable refugees in Jordan. This includes through the restoration of water supplies and introducing climate smart agriculture to generate growth that can withstand the impacts of the climate crisis.
The UK will continue to prioritise the most vulnerable and remains committed to spending £1.5bn in 2025 to support countries with building resilience to the impacts of climate change, tripling adaptation spend from 2019 levels.
This is part of the existing UK commitment to spend £11.6bn in International Climate Finance between April 2021 and March 2026.
