THE British government should use its £11 billion pot of climate funding to support access to contraceptives in poorer countries in an effort to tackle ecological breakdown, campaigners said yesterday.

In a letter to COP26 climate summit president Alok Sharma, more than 60 NGOs called for funding eligibility rules to be changed to allow projects concerned with reproductive healthcare access and girls’ education to access green funds.

Activists warn that climate change is leading to scarcities of food, water and medical supplies in the global South, which has contributed far less to the problem than richer nations, and a high birth rate only exacerbates the issue. 

Given Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent cut to the foreign aid budget, “innovative ways to integrate development and climate programming” are needed to avert disaster, the letter said.

The organisations urged Mr Sharma to make changes ahead of the United Nations summit in Glasgow in November, where nations will try to agree a deal to cut carbon emissions and avoid environmental catatrophe in the coming decades. 

Margaret Pyke Trust chief executive David Johnson said that people in low-income countries knew what they needed.

“From increased risk of unintended pregnancy to dropping out of school, the communities we work with tell us they are already seeing how climate change impacts them, and that they see connections between their health and their local environment,” he said.

“It is critical that government funding takes this into account. COP26 is an opportunity to right this wrong.”

A government spokesperson said ministers are making sure climate funding is “responsive to gender-based issues, and we call on others to do the same.”

Parliamentary reporter @TrinderMatt