Ministers in talks with City over climate finance for disaster-hit nations
Mr Lammy will join the Chancellor, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Environment Secretary Steve Reed for the first meeting between multiple Cabinet ministers and finance leaders on Tuesday.
The group is expected to discuss how the sector can play a part in channelling investment into climate initiatives in emerging markets.
The Government hopes the £12 million for pre-arranged finance for disaster relief and risk insurance will cut the cost of responding to extreme weather events, and the time it takes for countries to recover from such shocks.
This funding is triggered by certain warning signs — such as a forecast or weather event itself — to enable faster payouts, the Foreign Office said.
It comes after the Government slashed the UK's overseas aid budget from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in order to pay for increased defence spending.
The UK's climate finance commitments come from its aid budget.
The Foreign Secretary said: 'The climate and nature crisis is the greatest global challenge we face. Failure to act will cause unprecedented environmental damage, fuelling displacement, conflict and famine.
'Tackling this crisis is also a huge opportunity for people and businesses here in the UK, delivering on our Plan for Change. The green sector is worth trillions of pounds, and I'm determined that we seize on the economic growth, jobs and security it offers.
'The City of London, the world's leading sustainable development financing hub, has a crucial role to play in this.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Western Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Government ‘sympathetic' to Post Office inquiry's 19 recommendations
The Government will respond 'properly' to Sir Wyn's recommendations by the inquiry's October 10 deadline, Gareth Thomas pledged at the despatch box. 'I cannot assuage the anger of the victims, nor will the anger I feel on their behalf ever be assuaged,' business minister Mr Thomas told the Commons. 'But we are determined to do more on redress and beyond, and to do it quickly, to give more of the victims of this appalling scandal, at least, a measure of the peace they so rightly deserve.' Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry chairman Sir Wyn published the first volume of his final report on Tuesday. He found a 'number of senior people' at the Post Office were aware the Legacy Horizon system was capable of error up until it was changed in 2010, with several employees also aware the updated system, Horizon Online, also had bugs and defects. Among his 19 recommendations in the report was that the Government and Post Office should make a public announcement about what they mean by 'full and fair redress'. Mr Thomas told MPs: 'Blameless people were impoverished, bankrupted, stressed beyond belief, lost their jobs, their marriages, their reputations, their mental health, in some cases lost their lives.' He added: 'To be clear, I am very sympathetic to Sir Wyn's 19 recommendations today. 'Clearly, a number of them require careful consideration.' Mr Thomas said the Government already accepts a recommendation that the 'best offer principle' should apply where claimants can receive money through the High Court Group Litigation Order (GLO) scheme. Claimants 'should be able to bank the best offer they get', Mr Thomas said, including if they disagree with their award and lodge an appeal with an independent panel. 'We will provide redress for family members of postmasters who suffered because of the scandal,' the minister continued. He said: 'Sir Wyn rightly recognises that designing a suitable compensation scheme for family members raises some very difficult issues. 'Nonetheless, we want to look after those family members who suffered most, meeting Sir Wyn's recommendation that we should give, and I quote, 'redress to close family members of the most adversely affected by Horizon'.' Mr Thomas later said: 'Sir Wyn argues that there should be a standing public body to deliver redress in any further scandal. I have a considerable amount of sympathy with that argument, but clearly we shall need to analyse the options fully before we commit to it. 'We will reflect on how to address those twin challenges, and will bring our conclusions back to the House.' Ian Byrne pressed the Government on Labour's manifesto pledge to bring forward a Hillsborough law, named after the 1989 stadium crush in Sheffield, which would place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities and provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths. The Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby said: 'The publication of the report confirms the scale – the heartbreaking scale – of the human impact of this shocking miscarriage of justice.' He warned that the Post Office scandal 'follows a familiar pattern, where institutions deceive and distort because they put their reputations before truth and justice'. Mr Byrne, who has proposed his own Hillsborough law, having tabled the Public Authority (Accountability) Bill, asked: 'Does the minister agree that this report again shows why the Government must honour its pledge and promise to enact the Hillsborough law in full, and end this culture of cover-ups which does so much damage to the innocent victims' families and this country's reputation?' Mr Thomas replied: 'We need to see in full who was responsible for this disaster and why. 'Sir Wyn Williams's work in this regard is critical. We are awaiting his final report which will look at what happened and why it happened, and who was responsible, and that transparency will be hugely important in terms of helping the Post Office to learn the lessons from this appalling scandal, but for also the country as a whole to learn the lessons from the scandal. 'And if there are measures that we need to bring forward to make sure the Post Office is never in a position like this again, then we will certainly look to bring those forwards.' Conservative former minister Sir Andrew Mitchell said 'many' of his colleagues had raised Horizon redress 'for years' and added: 'It took the ITV drama of January 1 2024 (Mr Bates vs The Post Office) for the earth to move, which rather begs the question, what is the point of Parliament and its elected representatives?' He also asked: 'Isn't it about time that the institutions of the state got out the handcuffs and held the tax-funded villains who perpetrated this monstrous injustice to full and total account?' Mr Thomas said: 'Sir Wyn's further report will lay bare who is responsible, that and the work of the police. 'Their work is ongoing. There are 100 police officers working on this case. They are in touch with subpostmaster representatives and they have identified a series of people who are of interest to their inquiry.'
The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump questions why people are talking about ‘creep' Epstein - despite his push to release the files
President Donald Trump criticized a reporter who asked about the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, questioning why there was any buzz around the disgraced financier just one day after the Justice Department revealed there was no 'client list.' When confronted with a question about Epstein during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president paused, expressing disbelief that 'people are still talking about this creep.' 'Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years,' Trump began. 'Are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.' Trump promised to release the highly anticipated Epstein Files, among a trove of other documents in high-profile government investigations, to increase transparency. 'I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, when we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration,' Trump added.
Telegraph
32 minutes ago
- Telegraph
AI Marco Rubio impersonator ‘contacted US officials on Signal'
A catfish posing as Marco Rubio using an AI voice disguisercontacted senior government officials on the messaging app Signal. The imposter, who has not been identified by the authorities, sent voice and text messages using artificial intelligence technology (AI) to mimic the US secretary of state's voice and speech patterns, The Washington Post reported. They contacted a member of Congress, a US governor and three foreign ministers, seemingly with the goal of 'gaining access to information or accounts,' authorities said. Mr Rubio is the second member of Donald Trump's administration to be impersonated using AI, after a catfish pretending to be Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, contacted Republican lawmakers earlier this year. In June, Mr Rubio's impersonator created a Signal account with the name ' to contact foreign diplomats and politicians, according to a State Department cable. 'The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,' it reads. It is likely to renew concerns about the use of the app by senior members of Mr Trump's administration after national security figures accidentally leaked US military plans to a journalist in March. The State Department said it would 'carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future'. FBI investigation into Wiles AI catfish The FBI opened an investigation in May when a catfish using AI to pose as Ms Wiles, the US president's chief of staff, texted and called her contacts asking for cash. Ms Wiles privately told colleagues that her phone had been hacked by and mined for contacts. One Republican lawmaker said they had been asked to compile a list of people to be pardoned by Mr Trump, while another was asked for a cash transfer. Hany Farid, a professor specialising in digital forensics at the University of California Berkeley, said the catfish attempts did not need to be particularly sophisticated to succeed when coupled with AI software. 'This is precisely why you shouldn't use Signal or other insecure channels for official government business,' he told The Washington Post. In March, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, accidentally leaked US military plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen to the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg when he was accidentally added to a Signal chat by Mike Waltz, then the US national security adviser. Mr Waltz was sacked by Mr Trump in May, then nominated as US ambassador to the UN. His confirmation hearings will reportedly take place next week.
