This theme was also entitled Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and it took place on Tuesday 18th July which was one of the last days of Parliament before the Summer break. The person who started the session was Caroline Lucas and she began with the phrase “What recent steps his Department has taken to help meet the UK’s international climate finance commitments.” and the Minister who responded was Andrew Mitchell who is the Minister of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. His initial comment to Caroline was “As the Prime Minister set out at COP27, we are committed to spending £11.6 billion on international climate finance over the timeframe originally envisaged.” All of the text can be obtained from here and some of the elements are listed below.

Caroline Lucas: I take some comfort from the Minister’s reply. He will know that there has been much speculation—and indeed, some leaks—in the national media that demonstrate real concern that the Government were reneging on their climate finance commitments. Could he explain to me and the 50 cross-party MPs and peers who have written to the Prime Minister about this when the £11.6 billion will be delivered in full, broken down by each year? Could the Minister explain how the commitment will be met and assure us that it will not be by raiding the aid budget? He will know that the money is meant to be new and additional. It would be wrong for it to come at the expense of recipients who are expecting that aid budget and should have it.

Andrew Mitchell: The hon. Lady will have noticed yesterday that there was a very considerable return of transparency in the figures published by the Foreign Office. She will have seen that the allocations for aid for next year are nearly double what they were this year. We have a commitment to greater transparency and I expect to be able to publish in full how we will reach the £11.6 billion, probably in September.