UK unveils funding boost to help forest nations fight climate change

The world’s forests will be better protected after support announced today by the UK to help countries with vital tropical forests conserve nature, livelihoods and wildlife.   

At the COP29 summit in Baku, the UK has pledged £239 million to tackle deforestation in countries, including Colombia and Indonesia, recognising the critical role of forests in those countries as “carbon sinks” that absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere annually than the UK and USA emit combined.  

The last government’s commitment to £11.6bn of climate finance from 2021/22 to 2025/26 will continue to be honoured. This includes at least £3 billion on nature, from which £1.5 billion will be dedicated to protecting and restoring forests.

Halting and reversing forest loss is essential to keeping global heating under 1.5°C, delivering the UK’s global commitments to protect biodiversity, and meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  

Tropical forests are home to two-thirds of the world’s biodiversity and 80 percent of global terrestrial biodiversity. Wildlife such as orangutans, tigers and jaguars are under threat, and 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods.  

During COP29 in Baku the government highlighted the value of forests in ensuring a liveable climate, where people, animals and flora can thrive. The pledge was made alongside representatives of the presidencies for COP29 in Azerbaijan and COP30 in Brazil. 

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said  

Forests are the lungs of our planet – without them climate security is impossible. We’re determined to play our part in mobilising finance to protect and restore global forests in these critical years for climate action.   

The climate crisis has no borders and these issues impact people back home in the UK – we’re already seeing the damage flooding and record heatwaves can do to businesses and the most vulnerable in our communities.   

Providing this funding now helps prevent the escalating costs of climate catastrophe at home and abroad, this is what the UK means by climate leadership.

The £239 million funding announced today comprises  

• £188 million funding to the Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE) programme, to support the development of high-integrity forest carbon markets to ensure the buying and selling of carbon credits to drive emission reductions. This comes as the UK government confirms it intends to improve the integrity and use of voluntary carbon and nature markets.   

• £48 million for blended finance to unlock private investment in sustainable forest enterprises across the tropical forest belt. The Mobilising Finance for Forests programme provides financing to companies and investors to encourage them to invest more in activities that protect and restore forests.  

• £3 million for the UNFCCC to help countries protect their forests and realise their full climate change mitigation potential by reducing deforestation, restoring forests and providing benefits to local communities that depend on forests.   

These measures will unlock private and public financing to safeguard forest ecosystems, drive restoration efforts, and create sustainable opportunities for the communities who rely on them. This also reflects the government’s commitment to the COP26 forest pledge, which aims to reverse forest loss by 2030.  

The government has also announced 20 projects which will receive funding from Round One of the Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature (OCEAN) Grants Programme. These projects will deliver lasting change to the marine environment and coast communities across the world.  

UK Special Representative for Nature Ruth Davis said 

Urgent action is needed to address the nature and climate crisis – we cannot tackle one crisis while ignoring the other. Global cooperation is vital to improve the health and resilience of our planet for future generations.  

At COP29, the UK continues to lead the way – providing vital funding for forests and oceans and working to ensure the global economy functions in a way that protects and restores nature.

Notes to editors

Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions Programme (SCALE)

SCALE is a World Bank trust-fund that supports countries in mobilising finance for climate action, including accessing private sector finance through carbon markets. SCALE will provide a combination of technical assistance, implementation grants, and results-based finance to support countries to generate high-integrity, nature-based carbon credits at a jurisdictional scale. These in turn will unlock significant additional finance through their transaction on carbon markets, generating critically needed funding to further climate mitigation and adaptation actions, as well as combatting deforestation and poverty reduction through the sharing of benefits to local beneficiaries.  

This £188.2m commitment includes a £10m contribution to the Enhancing Access to Benefits by Lowering Emissions (EnABLE) programme. EnABLE will enhance the social inclusion benefits of SCALE, supporting marginalised and vulnerable communities to gain access to the carbon and non-carbon benefits generated by SCALE-financed ER programmes, as well as being active participants in the programme design and implementation.  

This contribution to SCALE builds on over 15 years of UK investment in SCALE’s predecessor programmes, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL). Lessons learned from the delivery of these programmes, as well as other UK-funded REDD+ and carbon market programmes, have been built into the design of this next generation of jurisdictional emission-reductions crediting programming.  

Mobilising Finance for Forests (MFF) 

MFF is an existing blended finance programme funded by the UK government to demonstrate the business case for sustainable forestry and land use in the tropical forest belt. This in turn will unlock private sector capital which will help to drive large-scale change to combat deforestation and other environmentally unsustainable land use practices which drive climate change and biodiversity loss globally.  

Managed by FMO, the programme provides direct financing to companies and projects in the sector, as well as indirect support to the sector in order to expand knowledge about forestry investments and engage a wider community of investors. It has been operational since 2021 and has already invested in a small portfolio of companies and funds. Additional financing will enable the programme to scale and generate greater impact for climate, nature and people. 

UNFCCC 

The UK contribution is specifically for the UNFCCC Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Unit so that it can continue to support countries’ efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and increase GHG removals through strengthened forest protection and management i.e. through REDD+ activities under the UNFCCC Warsaw Framework for REDD+ and Paris Agreement Article 5.  

This forms part of our commitment to catalysing a step change in global efforts to protect and restore precious forest landscapes, and promote sustainable land use. Specifically, our contribution will enable the AFOLU Unit to deliver vital support services mandated by COP and the CMA to 60+ countries engaging in forest protection and restoration under the UNFCCC REDD+ framework and Paris Agreement Article 5.  

Through this support, countries will also be able to leverage significant volumes of new climate finance for their forest mitigation results as a result of a recent landmark decision by the Green Climate Fund Board, co-chaired by the UK in 2024, to include REDD+ results-based payments in its regular funding operations. Under the GCF’s terms, these payments for emissions reductions/removals must be re-invested by countries in further forest protection activities, creating a virtuous cycle of action to protect and manage forests.

A full summary of projects receiving funding from OCEAN will be uploaded onto the OCEAN website in the coming weeks https//oceangrants.org.uk/