Ditching Dirty Development

The UK's Department for International Development is responsible for distributing and monitoring Britain's overseas development assistance - some £6 billion annually, which is around 0.5% of GDP. A campaign by People and Planet, called Ditch Dirty Development, is focused on ensuring that British overseas assistance does not contradict its climate change goals and policies.

The campaign calls for DFID producing an energy and climate change strategy for its funding programmes, to be focused around two key areas:
- Ensuring that DFID activities contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in the developing world, through phasing out support for fossil fuel extractive projects, and increasing support for renewable energy sources
- Increasing access to energy in the developed world by promoting decentralised and low-carbon energy alternatives.

Cutting carbon emissions here in the UK must be complemented by cutting carbon emissions elsewhere around the world, and UK public money must be focused around achieving that aim of a low-carbon economy, both in Britain and abroad. DFID, however, currently supports large oil and gas extraction projects through World Bank funding - which does little to alleviate poverty, but rather serves only as further oil and gas exports for developed countries. The proportion of World Bank funding to renewable energy projects - especially small-scale, self-owned projects that can help sustain local communities - has also been decreasing, in real and proportional terms.

DFID, using the clout that Britain holds at the World Bank (one of the top five shareholders), needs to ensure that its aid money to support development efforts also supports efforts to do so without contributing to climate change. People and Planet will be ramping up this campaign in the coming weeks - keep an eye out!