Here are the climate-related sections of speeches by MPs during the Commons debate Official Development Assistance Reductions.
09:37 Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat)
Migration and global instability do not begin at our borders. They begin when climate change destroys livelihoods, when wars displace families and when hunger drives desperation. Compassion and prevention are not opposites of security; they are the foundations of it.
Climate change remains the single greatest threat we face. Carbon knows no borders; it does not respect treaties or national boundaries. If we cut funding to those on the frontline of climate vulnerability, we are cutting our own future resilience. Whether that is in the Caribbean, the Sahel, the middle east or the Pacific, our partners need leadership, and Britain should be that leader.
The Government’s commitment to meet their £11.6 billion international climate finance pledge by 2026 is welcome, but it is increasingly hollow if other aid streams are being dismantled. We cannot claim climate leadership while simultaneously cutting the very funds that protect vulnerable nations from its impact and help them to decarbonise sooner. The UK has always been at its best when leading with principle and pragmatism. We led on eradicating smallpox, on fighting HIV/AIDS, on girls’ education, on tackling modern slavery and, of course, on the creation of the United Nations.
Today we must show that same moral courage. The cuts to the ODA budget are not only a betrayal of those values, they are a strategic mistake. Every pound we invest in aid saves far more in the long term, by preventing wars, stopping pandemics and reducing the need for emergency interventions. We live in a globalised society. Our economies, supply chains and security are inter- connected. Disease, conflict and climate crisis spread across borders with ease. To imagine that Britain can isolate itself from those realities is naive; if we fail to act abroad, we will pay the price at home.
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10:00 Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat)
As we have heard today, Britain’s aid budget supports international development in countries facing extreme poverty and conflict. We can see it every night on our television screens—in Gaza and Sudan, to name but two places. The aid budget also helps people in developing countries to address the impact of climate change. We have recently seen the devastating damage wreaked by Hurricane Melissa. Communities will need our help to rebuild their roads and housing and get clean water back again. Those are the sorts of things that our aid budget funds.
I am proud that in coalition the Liberal Democrats increased the aid budget to 0.7% of GNI. It is shocking that the Conservatives very quickly reduced it to 0.5%, and I cannot believe that Labour is now planning to reduce it further to just 0.3%. By 2027, as we have heard, that will be £6 billion less than it would have been even at 0.5%. That means £6 billion less for maternity care, vaccination programmes, food aid, education, clean water, flood protection and more. People at the sharp end of the climate crisis and in extreme poverty will die because of the cuts. We should not shy away from that.
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Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat)
A recent briefing from key organisations including UNICEF highlighted the dire impact that these cuts will have on ground operations. Operations across the globe will be scaled back, causing serious harm to citizens of affected countries and those putting themselves in harm’s way to help others—the humanitarian workers. I have highlighted in this Chamber the impact that reducing the aid budget will have on those selfless workers and, as a consequence, on those who need aid. I am sure that everyone in the Chamber knows that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers. Violence against aid workers has reached unprecedented levels, with injuries, harassment, kidnapping —the list goes on. Slashed budgets mean that the workers have fewer protections and less security, that less aid reaches victims of conflict, natural disasters and climate change in their hour of need, and that children in Sudan, Gaza, the west bank, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine will miss out on vital lifesaving support.
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