UK Slashes Funding For Climate Aid And Nature Protection Across Developing World

[hatrack]

UK programmes to protect nature and the climate in developing countries are suffering swingeing budget cuts despite ministers’ promises, the Guardian has learned. The cuts belie the government’s claims to be fulfilling international obligations on climate finance and are veiled behind a system that experts have criticised as opaque.

Several programmes intended to protect nature in vital ecosystems in Africa and Asia have been in effect axed. Other schemes have been reduced in scope, undermining their impact. One initiative, the £500m Blue Planet Fund – set up after Sir David Attenborough’s revelations of the plight of the marine environment in his Blue Planet series raised widespread public concern – is also in question.

The cuts have not been publicly revealed and are hidden amid a chronic lack of transparency in climate aid spending. The Guardian has uncovered: The cutting and partial closure of the £100m Biodiverse Landscapes Fund, intended to protect nature in vital ecosystems in poor regions overseas. Six regions were originally targeted, in Africa, South America and Asia, but this has been reduced to two.

EDIT

These schemes should have been worth hundreds of millions of pounds but are likely to be substantially reduced, in some cases by more than half. It is difficult to gauge the exact budget cuts, because there is no transparent government system for accounting for ICF. Replies to FoI requests, seen by the Guardian, have revealed some headline data on nature spending, but the government has produced no project-level data since 2020.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/02/uk-slashes-climate-aid-developing-countries

[walkingman]

1. Man is on a unrelenting quest to destroy the natural world. It is just a fact.