British funding has helped farmers who grow staples like bananas, rice, tea and coffee adapt to climate change, analysis shows.

The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) found that the UK has co-invested in at least 348 projects supporting overseas farmers facing climate extremes.

The UK has invested money alongside other major economies such as Germany and France through the six main multilateral climate funds.

These include the Green Climate Fund, which was established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is considered the largest dedicated multilateral climate fund in the world.

ECIU analysis found the projects cover 111 countries, 84 of which (76%) grow food sold on UK supermarket shelves.

One example is Colombia, which produces around a third (30%) of the UK’s bananas, or 253 million kilograms worth £169 million in 2023.

Colombia, along with other parts of the Amazon basin, has been experiencing exceptional drought since the middle of last year.

Rising temperatures are accompanied by increased frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, pests and diseases that reduce banana quality and yields.

To help farmers, the UK and other countries have invested through a Green Climate Fund project, which enables more efficient use of water and the cultivation of varieties more tolerant of climate impacts, noted the ECIU.

Meanwhile, Pakistan – which is the UK’s second largest rice supplier after India, with an output of 89 million kilograms worth £94 million in 2023 – has been hit this year by deadly floods, prolonged heatwaves and high humidity.

These impacts can damage rice plants and encourage pests and diseases like the Khapra beetle.

The UK is helping the country’s farmers grow rice as well as other key exports like wheat, sugarcane and cotton through several projects, including one under the Green Climate Fund, according to the analysis.

The initiatives help build the capacity of farmers by training them in water management, intercropping, mulching, growing heat, drought and salt tolerant crop varieties and integrated pest management against pests (IPM).

Gareth Redmond-King, international program manager at ECIU, said: “We live in an interdependent world, with overseas farmers on the frontline of climate extremes making their living selling food to us in the UK .

“These are some of the people who benefit from the investment support that the UK government makes overseas, as well as other major economies like Germany and France.

“If the impacts of climate change overwhelm them, their livelihoods are at stake and the UK’s food security is at risk. »

He added that while Britain’s harvests of key crops are being affected by wet weather linked to climate change, “relief” imports of key products are also “faltering under climate extremes in several supplier countries”.

The analysis focuses only on agricultural resilience projects financed by the six main multilateral climate funds: Climate Investment Fund (CIF), Green Climate Fund (GCF), Adaptation Fund (AF) and Fund for the Global Environment (GEF), which welcomes the least developed countries. Fund (LDCF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).

Although not included in this analysis, the UK has also made contributions to the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which is not strictly a climate fund but has a program called Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture (ASAP).

This initiative is present in more than 50 countries and has helped more than eight million small farmers vulnerable to climate change.

The country also makes bilateral donations to organizations, so the total number of agricultural resilience projects it invests in is likely higher than shown in the analysis, ECIU said.