Global Programmes
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) UK Voluntary Contribution
HM Treasury
UK contribution to support to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international standard setter for tackling money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, to increase the number of staff within its Global Network Coordination Group (GNCG). This enables GNCG to considerably increase its engagement with, and improve the quality of country assessments conducted by, the FATF-style regional bodies (FSRBs), and improve understanding of the FATF Standards among FSRB member countries. More robust, timely assessments and improved understanding of international AML/CTF/CPF standards drives more effective, more timely corrective measures around the world, leading to reduced opportunities for and improved law enforcement responses to financial crime. This additional engagement also enables and improves the effectiveness of other development interventions from other capacity building providers, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and others, as the regional institutional frameworks will be strengthened and knowledge of the FATF Standards will be increased.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) UK Capital Investment
HM Treasury
UK investment in the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to assist in addressing the shortage of infrastructure investment across the Asia-Pacific region. The UK’s membership will deepen economic ties with Asia and create opportunities for British businesses. The AIIB will support economic growth in the region and drive up living standards. The AIIB aims to help bridge the gap and improve economic growth in Asia. The establishment of the AIIB supports access to finance for infrastructure projects across Asia using a variety of support measures including loans, equity investments and guarantees to boost investment. Supporting infrastructure investment in Asian will support economic growth in the region and give benefits for the whole global economy.
End Violence Against Children (EVAC Fund)
UK - Home Office
The UK Home Office recognises the moral and operational imperative to support the global fight against online child sexual exploitation (CSE). As such, the Home Office has committed £40 million towards the UNICEF hosted End Violence Against Children Fund (EVAC) to support activities intending to build international capacity to tackle online CSE. The EVAC's strategy for supporting international action aligned to the WePROTECT Global Alliance's (WPGA) strategy for national action. The WePROTECT Global Alliance combines expertise from industry, law enforcement, government and civil society to determine the capabilities required at country level to effectively respond to the threat of online CSE. Projects funded by the EVAC fund must demonstrate how they support the implementation of the WPGA's Model National Response.
Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain Solutions
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
This activity supports a number of different areas of work which aim to accelerate the climate benefits of the Kigali Amendment (KA) to the Montreal Protocol (MP) and encourage uptake of energy efficient and climate friendly solutions. This includes (1) The creation of an African Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chains (ACES) in Rwanda. ACES will accelerate deployment of sustainable (environmental, economic and social) cold-chain solutions throughout Africa. (2) The development and deployment of an HFC outlook model to address information gaps on energy use and energy related CO2 emissions from the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pumps (RACHP) market. It will assist in reducing cost of the transition for Article 5 countries to the Montreal Protocol and increase the climate benefit of action under the MP. (3) Increasing countries technical capacity and providing insights on global best practice of EE improvements of cooling products in parallel with HFC phase down, through model regulations and sustainable public procurement in ASEAN and Africa.
A contribution to Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) the United Nations Development Programme Biodiversity Finance Initiative (Biofin) to support delivery of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The programme will support low and lower-middle income countries to grow their economies in ways that help to protect and restore their natural capital and so drive sustainable economic development. It is designed to provide practical support to governments, businesses, and financial institutions to integrate nature into their economic and financial decision-making, understand and manage nature-related risks, and capitalise on growing opportunities to invest in their natural assets. As such, it will support low and lower-middle income countries to transition to nature positive, net zero economies and so protect the poorest communities. Through an integrated set of activities, the programme will deliver the following outcomes: • Private Sector Disclosure Readiness: private sector actors in low and lower-middle income countries – including financial institutions, businesses, and policy-makers - will have the tools they need to understand and manage nature-related financial risk. In particular, the programme will ensure that key institutions have the tools and capacity to respond to growing demand to disclose nature-related financial risk. • Integrating nature at country level: governmental and regulatory decision-makers in low and lower-middle income countries will have the knowledge, skills and data to design and implement policies and programmes that will help to manage nature-related risks, unlock new nature markets, and rebuild natural capital. • Action Plans for Nature: partner governments will develop clear and comprehensive plans to finance the protection and restoration of nature. These plans will act as platforms to mobilise and guide both public and private financial flows. • Evidence Sharing Mechanisms on Nature: better evidence will be available to, and used by, decision makers in low and lower middle-income countries to guide their work. The programme will help to build the evidence about how to best integrate consideration of the natural environment into economic and financial decision making. It will also help decision-makers in governments and the private sector to access and use that evidence easily by building communities of practice and robust approaches to sharing knowledge and information. The outcomes will support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting COP15. As protection and restoration of critical ecosystems is also critical to tackling climate change, it will also support the UK goal to keep global temperature rises within 1.5c degrees.
GEOGLAM - UK Contribution to The Group on Earth Observation's Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative is to increase market transparency and improve food security.
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The purpose of Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) is to increase market transparency and improve food security by producing and disseminating relevant, timely, and actionable information on agricultural conditions and outlooks of production at national, regional, and global scales. It achieves this by strengthening the international community’s capacity to utilize coordinated, comprehensive, and sustained Earth observations. GEO is an intergovernmental organisation that works to improve the availability, access and use of earth observations (EO) globally, primarily targeted at the sustainable development goals (SDGs), Paris climate agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The GEOGLAM policy mandate initially came from the Group of Twenty (G20) Agriculture Ministers during the French G20 Presidency in 2011. The mandate has expanded parallel to the G20 mandate to include food security concerns and we now work to support early warning for international agency response to emerging food emergencies. GEOGLAM has produced Stocktaking reports for the G20 in recent years. These reports are available for 2021, 2022 and 2023. GEOGLAM is working on a response to the three big policy drivers of our time: UN Sustainable Development Goals; the Paris Accord on Climate Change; and, the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction. Through the development of quantified metrics GEOGLAM will be able to work with other science communities and statistical agencies to develop policy relevant information in support of sustainable food production. GEOGLAM is a Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Flagship Initiative.
International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime Strategic Vision 2030
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is a lucrative transnational crime which undermines governance, fuels corruption, creates instability, threatens species with extinction and deprives some of the world’s poorest communities of sustainable livelihoods. The International Consortium on Combatting Wildlife Crime (ICCWC)’s Strategic Vision 2030 programme involves a global collaborative effort of inter-governmental organisations, which aims to create a fit for purpose law enforcement and criminal justice system that effectively addresses wildlife crime. The ICCWC Vision 2030 programme will guide ICCWC interventions through a series of targeted approaches to achieve the five outcomes: 1) reduced opportunity for wildlife crime, 2) increased deterrence of wildlife crime, 3) increase detection of wildlife crime, 4) increase disruption and detention of criminals, and 5) evidence-based action, knowledge exchange and collaboration. Defra’s funding will contribute towards delivering the interventions for outcomes 3, 4 and 5. Implementation of activities will develop capacity within, and provide support to, wildlife authorities, police, customs, and justice systems in strategically important developing countries, to ensure that they effectively respond to and address wildlife crime. The strategy shifts involvement in the IWT to a high-risk low-reward environment. Reduced IWT will help alleviate poverty, biodiversity loss and climate change. The collaborative global working of ICCWC combines partners with diverse and extensive experiences and brings together countries impacted by IWT to yield more effective results in addressing wildlife crime.
Darwin Initiative Round 24
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication
Darwin Initiative Round 25
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Darwin Initiative is a UK government grants scheme that helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide. The initiative funds projects that help countries rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to meet their objectives under one or more of the biodiversity conventions. The objective is to to address threats to biodiversity such as: - habitat loss or degradation - climate change - invasive species - over-exploitation - pollution and eutrophication
UK Annual Contributions to the Montreal Protocol Trust Fund, Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund and Vienna Convention Trust Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
This activity supports an annual UK contribution to The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer which is a multilateral environmental agreement with universal ratification. It regulates the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODS). Protection of the ozone layer is vital in preventing increased UV radiation, resulting in higher incidence of skin cancers and eye cataracts, more-compromised immune systems, and negative effects on watersheds, agricultural lands and forests. The Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol was established in 1991. The Fund's objective is to provide financial and technical assistance to developing country parties to the Montreal Protocol whose annual per capita consumption and production of ODS is less than 0.3 kg to comply with the control measures of the Protocol. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is a multilateral environmental agreement signed in 1985 that provided frameworks for international reductions in the production of chlorofluorocarbons due to their contribution to the destruction of the ozone layer, resulting in an increased threat of skin cancer.
Annual contribution to the United Nations Environment Trust Fund of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
This activity supports an annual UK contribution to the IPBES. IPBES is a science-policy platform providing comprehensive, credible and legitimate scientific knowledge about Earth’s essential life support systems and their contribution to human well-being; as well as tools and local capacity to help decision makers around the world identify solutions to pressures on ecosystems, sustainable use of natural resources and related poverty. Contributions to the IPBES Trust Fund are used to meet the running costs and support developing country expert engagement in delivering the work programme agreed by member governments at the Plenary meetings.
Funding to support delivery of ODA eligible programming delivered by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew provides an international centre of expertise and benefits to developing countries, including through collections and seed banks, agricultural science including collaboration with the ODA eligible Global Crop Diversity Trust, plant health including diagnosis of plant pests and diseases and biosecurity, capacity building (CBD, CITES, Nagoya Protocol, IPBES), M&E of ICF, advice on climate change resilience.
Blue Forests Project
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Blue Forests Project aims to design a holistic model for replication for community-led mangrove forest restoration and protection. The programme operates in Madagascar and Indonesia, working with local coastal communities to protect and restore mangrove habitat, create new and improve existing sustainable livelihoods, support community health and women’s empowerment and increase climate resilience.
International Climate Finance R&D Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
This International Climate Finance (ICF) funded programme will deliver an integrated package of projects to strengthen global knowledge and understanding of the interrelationship between the climate and biodiversity challenges. It will seek to inform the work of policy developers and development practitioners globally and help narrow the funding gap between current and required investment in natural solutions to climate change. It recognises that the scaling, and effectiveness, of natural solutions to the triple challenge of climate change, poverty and biodiversity loss (hereafter referred to as ‘natural solutions’) requires an investment in the primary evidence base needed to inform effective decisions, and drive innovation in the future. The proposed package of work is designed to meet both short and longer-term evidence needs, including to deliver a UNFCCC and CBD legacy, focusing on ensuring strategic, policy-relevant results and a global network of knowledge exchange and learning. As part of this programme, the UK committed £40m to establish the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC). The GCBC is funded by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with International Climate Finance, working in partnership with DAI Global as the Management Lead and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as the Strategic Science Lead. Through a series of research grant calls the GCBC will support GBF Targets 8,11 & 14 by establishing a global network of research institutions and experts to address critical research gaps in how the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can address climate solutions and improve livelihoods. The GCBC was announced at COP26 with £40m of UK International Development funding. It contributes to the UK Government’s commitment to spend £3bn of its £11.6bn of International Climate Finance on nature and biodiversity over the 5 years to March 2026. The GCBC aims to support developing countries to shape decision-making and develop policies that better value, protect, restore and sustainably manage biodiversity in ways that tackle resilience to climate change and poverty. For more information, please visit www.gcbc.org.uk
UK Blue Carbon Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Fund will promote the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of mangrove habitats by developing and embedding operational blue carbon markets across the Caribbean and Latin America that provide local communities with a sustainable income and assist in moving low-income countries towards low-emission, climate-resilient development.
Land Degradation Neutrality Fund
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The LDN Fund invests in projects which reduce or reverse land degradation and thereby contribute to ‘Land Degradation Neutrality’. The LDN Fund is co-promoted by the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova. It is a public-private partnership using public money to increase private sector investment in sustainable development. The fund invests in sustainable agriculture, forestry and other land uses globally. The Fund was launched at the UNCCD’s COP 13 in China in 2017.
Global Programme on Sustainability
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The programme supports sustainable economic growth that is both long-lasting and resilient to climate-related stressors. It does this through the integration of natural capital into decision making by governments, the private sector and financial institutions. The inability to value natural capital can undermine long-term growth and critically, the livelihoods of the poorest people dependent on ecosystems for their livelihoods. This programme directly addresses this challenge by (i) investing in data and research on natural capital; (ii) assisting countries to integrate this analysis into government policy making; and (iii) integrating this data and analysis into financial sector decision making.
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Defra is one of the largest funders of the global, market-led, and science-based Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) initiative. The TNFD recommendations and supporting implementation guidance enable organisations to assess, report, and act on their evolving nature-related risks, opportunities, impacts, and dependencies, with the ultimate aim of supporting a shift in global financial flows towards nature-positive outcomes and achieving the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Defra contributed £2,826,855 to support the TNFD initiative’s two-year open innovation ‘design and development’ phase, which culminated in the launch of the final TNFD corporate reporting recommendations on nature-related risk management and disclosure in September 2023 at New York Climate Week. From November 2021 – November 2022, Defra also contributed £1,675,000 to fund a TNFD African Voice pilot programme, with Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) acting as the delivery partner. This funding was used to secure engagement by African financial institutions, governments, and central banks, with the aim of ensuring that the TNFD framework is fit for purpose in African contexts. In addition, this funding supported the production of a report examining the materiality of nature-related risks for financial institutions in African contexts. At COP28 in December 2023, the Defra Secretary of State announced an additional £2 million funding to support the TNFD initiative’s uptake phase, which is focused on encouraging and enabling voluntary market adoption across sectors and geographies, and supporting efforts to address the knowledge, capacity building and data needs of market participants.
United Nations Development Programme: Climate Promise
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The UNDP Climate Promise programme helps developing countries implement their national climate pledges – Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The programme aims to increase ambition, implementation and engagement for NDCs under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Defra's contribution focuses on the Forest, Land and Nature work area, contributing to increase the representation of nature in 8 countries’ NDCs through to COP27, the Global Stocktake in 2023 and to 2026. Project activities include: - Supporting countries in assessing the extent to which nature could contribute to meet climate targets, and establishing the steps required to meet this potential; - Supporting countries to develop detailed delivery plans and policies across relevant sectors that would enable them to maximise the role of nature in reaching the Paris climate goal; - Supporting countries in implementing delivery plans and policies, so that commitments and targets could be delivered through concrete actions. The UNDP Climate Promise aligns with the Prime Minister’s commitment of at least £3 billion of ICF to climate change solutions that protect and restore nature and biodiversity over five years, HMG’s Integrated Review, Response to the Dasgupta Review and COP26 commitments including the Glasgow Leaders Declaration.
Global Fund For Coral Reefs (GFCR)
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Coral reefs are amongst the most valuable ecosystems on earth, harbouring the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem, supporting 25% of marine life and providing a myriad of benefits to thousands of species. The Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) is a project within the Blue Planet Fund portfolio. The GFCR is the first Multi-partner Trust Fund for Sustainable Development Goal 14. It provides finance for coral reefs with particular attention on Small Island Developing States. The GFCR promotes a ‘protect-transform-restore-recover’ approach through the creation and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to save and protect coral reefs in the face of serious decline and extinction. The GFCR has four main outcomes: Protect priority coral reef sites and climate change-affected refugia Transforming the livelihoods of coral reef-dependent communities Restoration and adaptation technologies Recovery of coral reef-dependent communities to major shocks
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