Analysis: UK no longer top UN Green Climate Fund donor after latest aid cut

<p>The UK is no longer the top contributor to the UN’s flagship <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Green Climate Fund</a> (GCF), after the government <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/05/14/uk-halves-green-climate-fund-contribution-as-it-spends-more-on-security/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">announced</a> that it only intends to honour half of its most recent pledge.</p>

<p>Amid <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-is-halving-its-climate-finance-for-developing-countries/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">wider cuts</a> to its climate aid for developing countries, the UK informed the GCF in May that it will reduce its commitment for the 2024-27 period to £815m ($1.1bn).</p>

<p>In doing so, the Labour government is drastically cutting a Conservative pledge of £1.62bn ($2.16bn), <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-announces-record-climate-aid-commitment-as-g20-in-india-concludes" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">hailed</a> by former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s government as “the biggest single funding commitment the UK has made to help the world tackle climate change”.</p>

<p>This “record” pledge also meant the UK became the top GCF funder, after the Trump administration <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-nearly-a-tenth-of-global-climate-finance-threatened-by-trump-aid-cuts/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">withdrew</a> $4bn in pledged US funds in 2025.</p>

<p>Now, the UK follows the US in becoming the second major donor to cancel substantial funding, leaving aid experts <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/05/14/uk-halves-green-climate-fund-contribution-as-it-spends-more-on-security/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">concerned</a> that other developed countries will follow suit.</p>

<p>As the chart below shows, the UK’s total past and promised contributions to the GCF have now dropped below those of Germany, France and Japan.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="GCF pledges by top 10 donors. Dark bars indicate pledges from the initial resource mobilisation in 2014" class="wp-image-62378" height="916" src="https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/The_UK_is_no_longer_the_largest_contributor_to_the_UN_Green_Climate_Fund2C_following_the_government_s_latest_climate-finance_cut.png" width="1560" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">GCF pledges by top 10 donors. Dark bars indicate pledges from the initial resource mobilisation in 2014 and the first replenishment round in 2019, while light blue bars indicate pledges from the second replenishment round in 2023. Source: <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/green-climate-fund-pledge-tracker#country-pledges" id="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/green-climate-fund-pledge-tracker#country-pledges" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" type="link">NRDC GCF pledge tracker</a>.</figcaption></figure>

<p>The GCF is the largest dedicated UN climate fund and is <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-where-multilateral-climate-funds-spend-their-money/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">seen</a> as a vital way of raising grant-based climate finance for developing countries. It <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/news/gcf-portfolio-hits-usd-20-billion-climate-action-board-selects-host-countries-new-regional" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">oversees</a> more than $20bn worth of funding across 354 projects and programmes.</p>

<p>Developed countries, such as the UK, are obliged under the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/interactive-the-paris-agreement-on-climate-change/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Paris Agreement</a> to provide climate finance. One of the main ways to do this is through specialised climate funds, such as the GCF. </p>

<p>However, despite countries <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-the-300bn-climate-finance-goal-is-even-less-ambitious-than-it-seems/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">committing</a> to increase their climate finance over time, progress in scaling up GCF contributions between funding rounds has been <a href="https://us.boell.org/en/2023/10/12/gcf-replenishment-sends-some-signals-just-not-right-ones" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">gradual</a>.</p>

<p>With its now-revoked £1.62bn pledge in 2023, the UK was among the donors that had increased its GCF pledging compared with the previous 2019 funding round.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The latest reduction means the UK will now provide around 45% less funding than it did during the 2019 round. This is the biggest reduction between rounds by any major donor, apart from the US.</p>

<p>In an email to the GCF board, reported by the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/98dc9a60-3260-43b4-abab-356bd5a8b41c?syn-25a6b1a6=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Financial Times</a>, the fund’s executive director Mafalda Duarte said the UK’s actions were “expected to have a material impact on the delivery” of the fund’s projects.</p>

<p>According to the newspaper, Duarte noted that the move came as the UK cuts its overall aid budget in order to “invest more in addressing growing security threats”.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In March, the UK government announced plans to spend “around £6bn” of its aid budget on climate projects in developing countries over the next three years.</p>

<p>Carbon Brief <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-is-halving-its-climate-finance-for-developing-countries/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">analysis</a> suggests that this spending amounts to roughly halving the UK’s annual climate finance, when <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/revealed-uk-double-counting-500m-of-aid-for-war-torn-countries-as-climate-finance/">accounting changes</a> and inflation are factored in.</p>

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<p>The post <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-no-longer-top-un-green-climate-fund-donor-after-latest-aid-cut/">Analysis: UK no longer top UN Green Climate Fund donor after latest aid cut</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org">Carbon Brief</a>.</p>