£1 billion of UK aid to fight climate change in Africa

[confounded]

The UK is set to pour up to £1 billion of taxpayers money into helping African countries fight climate change.

[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8918045/1-billion-of-UK-aid-to-fight-climate-change-in-Africa.html#disqus_thread

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"Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, is due to announce details of a foreign aid package ahead of government talks at a United Nation's summit on climate change in Durban, South Africa, which start this week. Among the projects to be funded will be schemes to help African farmers insure their crops against flooding and drought while other projects include installing solar power in rural villages and building slurry pits that can produce gas to power generators."

 

[JamesBrownLive]

£1 Billion...... and as always with Africa, a good chunk ending up in the hands of corrupt politicians, local officials etc.

Beggars belief !

 

[dansk]

Charity starts at home.

 

[malcolmsanford]

I'm going to put an optimistic slant on this, that it is all a cunning plan by our government, and by laying out this Billion we are going to reap 5 billion back in all these redundant PV sparks going over there, all the knock on trade etc etc, but I fell like Balderick there may be some holes in this cunning plan as well.

 

[SolarCity]

To be honest, I don't have an issue with overseas aid - especially to Africa.

It is true that a lot of the aid ends up in the wrong hands but this isn't a good reason to not do the right thing. It is a good reason to make sure that we the right thing better.

One of the main reasons I took such an interest in solar power is as a tool to battle climate change. If the billion pounds goes a long way to helping and to helping the people there then I'm all for it.

 

[Thomas123]

so what about the people who are in need in this country??? not being nasty but i watched children in need the other day, and there are kids dying of leukemia, and the hospice that are supporting them and their families while they spend the last few months of their lifes have to beg for funding which they cannot get... there is loads like this, charities in this country cannot get the funding.. its makes me livid

then the government are sending 1 billion abroad?? get you priorites right. start sorting out the problems that are in this country first, then worry about others..

 

[SolarCity]

I don't see a child in Britain as more of a priority than a child in Africa. My responsibility as a human being doesn't just end at our borders.

 

[Thomas123]

I don't see a child in Britain as more of a priority than a child in Africa. My responsibility as a human being doesn't just end at our borders.

hence why i said "then worry about others"

it seems that the government are more worried about other countries than our own.. our problems need sorting before anyone elses..

 

[SolarCity]

By saying "then worry about others", you are giving priority to British children. That's fair enough and a popular viewpoint. I'm just saying that I don't see it that way.

 

[sbrown2]

This country is a world leader in leadership. Or so I thought. I would imagine there is a money to be made in this. But also morally it looks good.

As for the pointless view relating to kids with leukemia. This country will never let children, who are presented to it, not get the care they require.

 

[Scooby]

I can see £1b of anti-climate-change aid having a far greater effect in Africa than in our own country, to be honest. From what I can see, this money will be used to directly support and hopefully permanently change the conditions that many of the poorest in the world are living in - if you prevent flooding, the people in that area will not require as much food-aid in the future (which is always a temporary measure) and will be better capable in supporting themselves. Also, I cannot think of many countries more suited to solar power!

These poor (in every sense) people should be able to enjoy an immediate, permanent and substantial benefit from this money. In our country, the investment in solar largely benefits those lucky enough to have the spare cash to have a PV system installed - and I speak, with some guilt, as one of them; I can't see all these domestic installations having any detectable beneficial effect on our national energy consumption. Ok, I know it has also helped to build a new, badly-needed, industry, but I'm not sure if it was value-for-money (I could be wrong - I just don't know.) Whereas, I can see the same money having a concrete benefit in African countries.

I also agree, tho', that much of that money will likely be lost to corrupt organisations and rebels. That's why - going off on a tangent here... - I'd also support the UN in taking direct action against all the f***in' corrupt rulers in this god-forsaken planet.

 

[Specialist]

Charity starts at home.

No mate: With this country it starts anywhere but at home, pity they don't spend it on our own instead.

 

[tonto33]

:63:save a billion :63:95% of them live in desert tell em to move 5 mile down road then they be able to grow there own crops saving us even more billions

 

[malcolmsanford]

Noble cause naively executed though Scooby

My wife and I donate to a couple of charities UKAge and Action for Children both charities that I feel that are trying to help vulnerable people in the UK.

I'm afraid at my time in life I have reached the point where I've seen too much in the world to feel that this money is going to benefit many subsistence farmers in Africa.

In an African country that I worked in 1987 I saw rice being sold in the markets in bags that had Gift Aid from the United States stamped on it, and food aid rotting on a dock because apparently the official that dealt with this was not given his sweetener and so the go ahead for the import licence was not issued, and in the end it was bull dozed into the sea.

I'm not saying we have it down to perfection in this country regarding aid or charity, but I like to honestly feel it is less corrupted than in many areas of the world.

 

[SolarCity]

I also agree, tho', that much of that money will likely be lost to corrupt organisations and rebels. That's why - going off on a tangent here... - I'd also support the UN in taking direct action against all the f***in' corrupt rulers in this god-forsaken planet.

Couldn't agree more.