UK aid’s alignment with the Paris Agreement

A rapid review that examines how the UK government is aligning all its official development assistance (ODA) with the Paris Agreement, following its commitment to do so in 2019.

  1. Status: Completed
  2. Published: 14 October 2021
  3. Type: Rapid review
  4. Subject: Climate change and biodiversity
  5. Lead commissioner: Tamsyn Barton
  6. SDGs covered:Climate action

Read the approach summary

Our approach

This rapid review examines how the UK government is aligning its official development assistance (ODA) with the Paris Agreement. Recognising that the commitment to doing so is relatively recent, the review focuses primarily on whether the UK government has put in place suitable strategies, systems and processes that could deliver alignment of aid across aid-spending departments with the Paris Agreement.

This review builds on previous scrutiny of UK aid and climate change, including the 2019 ICAI review of International Climate Finance and the 2019 IDC inquiry into UK aid for combating climate change. It also builds on previous ICAI reviews into ‘what works’ for successful mainstreaming.

The review provides timely and useful insights that can support the effort to align UK ODA with the Paris Agreement.

Review questions

  1. Relevance: Does the UK have a credible approach to aligning UK aid with the Paris Agreement?
  2. Coherence: Is the UK’s approach to aligning with the Paris Agreement coherent across aid-spending departments and with international partners?

 

Read the annotated bibliography

Timeline

Approach

Published 3 June 2021

Evidence gathering

Complete

Review publication

Published 14 October 2021

Government response

Published 25 November 2021

Parliamentary scrutiny

IDC hearing 22 February 2022

ICAI follow-up

Published 18 July 2023

Further follow-up

Expected summer 2024