LONDON — The United Kingdom’s aid spending cut has “profound implications” for the country’s position as host of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2021, according to climate diplomacy and policy experts.
The government hoped the 26th Conference of the Parties — which the U.K. is co-hosting with Italy — would show the country as an international leader strongly engaged on global issues after leaving the European Union.
But Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s recent decision to drop the country’s long-standing commitment to spending 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance — instead allocating just 0.5% of GNI next year — has skewed international perceptions of the U.K. as a development leader, according to experts. The government also plans to change its legal commitments to development spending.