The UK has spent £12.8bn on climate aid for developing countries since 2021, according to official figures obtained by Carbon Brief.

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. 

According to the FOI data obtained by Carbon Brief, 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 by drought and £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.

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