Analysis: How the UK spent more than £11.6bn on climate aid since 2021

Article Contents Expand menu Close The UK has supported around 500 climate projects since 2021 UK climate aid has reached record levels – but is set to drop Afghanistan received more bilateral climate aid than any other country Development banks and private-sector funders are among the biggest beneficiaries Methodology The UK has spent £12.8bn on climate aid for developing countries since 2021, according to official figures obtained . Freedom-of-information (FOI) requests reveal how the UK has used its “climate finance” to support everything from solar projects in Mozambique to carbon offsets in the Amazon. UK climate funding, which reached a record £4bn this year, has supported roughly 500 aid projects, climate funds and private-investment initiatives over the past five years. With this spending, the UK has surpassed its £11.6bn climate-finance target for this period, although Carbon Brief analysis shows that it has partly relied on “questionable accounting”. This target is part of the UK’s ongoing responsibility under UN climate treaties to financially support developing countries in their efforts to tackle climate change. Despite being central to its international climate policy, the UK government does not routinely release data on progress towards its climate-finance goals. Here, Carbon Brief has published the data in full for the first time and pulled out key trends since 2021.  The UK has supported around 500 climate projects since 2021 According to the FOI data obtained , at least 493 projects, funds and institutions received UK climate finance between 2021-22 and 2025-26. These included £45m to help Ukraine curb its reliance on fossil fuels, £40m in cash transfers for Kenyans affected £30m to provide flood resilience in Nepal. Larger sums were provided to projects spread across multiple countries, often with the stated goal of “mobilising” additional finance from the private sector. For example, the UK channelled £198m into a World Bank-backed project to help Colombia, Cambodia and others create and sell “high-integrity” carbon offsets. The UK also provided £229m to a group that uses foreign aid to attract private capital for projects in predominantly low-income nations, such as a solar farm in Uganda and a “sustainable aviation fuel” project in Pakistan. All of the funded projects can be viewed in the interactive table below.  The UK has been criticised .  In line with its international obligations, the government routinely releases its climate-finance figures to the UN – albeit with a two-year delay.  However, it does not publish this data broken down , making it impossible to accurately gauge progress towards the £11.6bn goal.  The data gathered .