Month: November 2022

• Announced at UKEF’s annual Finance Forum, the new Bills and Notes Guarantee product is part of its wider package to support SMEs in securing exporting contracts.
• The Bills and Notes Guarantee enables overseas buyers of UK goods to benefit from extended payment terms.
• Andrew Bowie, Minister for Exports, highlights the vital role UKEF can play in supporting SMEs in the challenging global economy.

UK Export Finance has launched a new product to help support SMEs through challenging market conditions. Announced by Minister for Exports Andrew Bowie, at UKEF’s annual Finance Forum, the new Bills and Notes product is now open to guarantee payments by overseas buyers. The product will be available to more financial institutions with a simpler, more streamlined process.

The announcement came almost a year to the day of the Government’s launch of its export strategy and the concrete target of getting UK PLC to 1 trillion pounds of export sales.

Andrew Bowie, Minister for Exports, said:

To deliver growth, level up the country, and future proof our economy, we need to export more.

That’s why UKEF helps businesses of all sizes to expand and start their exporting journeys. The support that UKEF provides is crucial for firms, especially for small businesses in particular while they grapple with the current economic headwinds. That’s why our new Bills and Notes Guarantee is so welcome. It’s the latest in our support for SMEs and provides a faster and more streamlined process to get money in businesses accounts.

In the last year UKEF has provided record support for small and medium businesses across the UK and I am committed to building on this momentum.

Bills and Notes are a standard method of payment where money is due under bills of exchange or promissory notes. UKEF has now improved its offer to enable overseas buyers of UK goods to benefit from extended payment terms structured using these methods. Simply put it means small UK businesses can get paid more quickly and easily for their exports. This helps with crucial cash flow and liquidity.

As part of its wider package of support for SMEs, it is the latest announcement by UKEF in its mission to remove barriers to trade. Through partnerships with specialist lenders, UKEF can now support a greater range of UK exporters – including those with smaller transactions – by arranging tailored, deferred payment facilities for companies worldwide.

In 2021-22, 81% of companies supported by UKEF were SMEs, a new record for UKEF. This is underpinned by the ‘gamechanging’ General Export Facility (GEF) designed to give SME exporters more flexibility in accessing trade finance.

Moreover, UKEF provided £27 million of support to ensure UK SMEs got paid up front to fulfil export contracts, using its Standard Buyer Loan Guarantee scheme, while overseas buyers benefit from flexible repayment terms.

The Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has today called for renewed global action on nature as she sets out an ambitious path forward for nature at COP’s Biodiversity Day (16 November).

Outlining the importance of next month’s vital meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal , she is calling on countries to come together at that summit and  agree a robust global plan for tackling nature loss. While significant progress has been made, more action is needed from both the public and private sectors to bridge the reported $700 billion funding gap needed to stop nature loss.

Our security, livelihoods and productivity depend on the global web of life including our forests and the ocean, with over half of the world’s GDP reliant on nature.

Today at Biodiversity Day, the UK Government continues to drive global  efforts to embrace nature to help lower global temperatures and build a sustainable future. It will:

• Commit £30 million of seed finance into the Big Nature Impact Fund – a new public-private fund for nature in the UK which will unlock significant private investment into nature projects, such as new tree planting or restoring peatlands. Managed by Federated Hermes and Finance Earth, these habitat creation projects will aid small business growth and job creation as well as soak up carbon emissions and support cleaner air and water. 
• Pledge an additional £12 million to the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance to protect and restore vulnerable coastal communities and habitats
• Commit a further £6 million to provide capacity building support to developing countries to increase commitments to nature and nature-based solutions under the Paris Agreement, through the UNDP Climate Promise.
• Announce new UK climate finance contribution of £5 million toward the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Amazon. This will help to tackle deforestation through community-led projects harnessing local knowledge to protect the world’s most precious forests that the planet relies on, whilst providing sustainable business opportunities to Indigenous People whose livelihoods depend on forests.
• Raise awareness of the incredible importance of mangroves and their role in coastal resilience by endorsing the Mangrove Breakthrough led by the UNFCCC High-Level Champions and the Global Mangrove Alliance. This vital project aims to secure the future of vital coastal mangrove forests.
• Highlight the climate benefits of blue carbon through continued support for the new Global Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon (GO-BC), which has now launched a new Global Graduate scheme for early career blue carbon researchers.

Speaking at Biodiversity Day at COP27, Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

Over half of the world’s GDP reliant on nature, which is why the United Kingdom  put nature at the heart of our COP26 Presidency and led calls to protect 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030.

We continue to demonstrate international leadership through commitments to create a natural world that is richer in plants and wildlife to tackle the climate crisis, and at next month’s meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity we will strive for an ambitious agreement that includes a global 30by30 target, a commitment to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and an increase in resources for the conservation and protection of nature from all sources.

Lord Goldsmith, Minister for International Environment, Climate, Forests & Energy, said:

The fastest route to Net Zero is restoring the world’s forests and protecting nature. And the value of forests and other ecosystems goes so much further than climate. The greatest guardians of nature has always been indigenous people, which is why the UK is delighted to support communities in the Amazon in their efforts to protect and restore their environment.

Global momentum is now behind plans to halt nature’s decline, with 95 world leaders and over 100 non-state actors having now signed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature which commits to global action to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

This momentum will only continue if the right incentives are in place. The UK, together with Ecuador, Gabon and the Maldives, recently led the creation of a Political Vision: 10 Point Plan for Financing Biodiversity (10PP), launched with 17 early endorsers. At COP27, ministers and representatives from 15 existing signatories and others were drawn together in a closed door meeting to kick-start next steps on translating this plan into action ahead of CBD-COP15.2 in Montreal.

As outgoing UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) COP Presidents, it is vital that the United Kingdom’s level of ambition for nature is continued under future Presidencies to achieve Net Zero goals and halt the damage that climate change is causing to our planet.

Looking ahead to UN CBD, this includes scaling strong investments into nature-based solutions, committing to protecting and restoring critical ecosystems, such as mangroves and peatlands, improving the abundance of species and plants, and halting the decline of biodiversity to create a more sustainable future and drive economic growth.

ENDS.

Notes to editors:

Further information on the Big Nature Impact Fund

• The new blended fund is being launched with £30 million of government investment. From the 16 November the fund will start to engage with private investors to help fund green projects around the country, this will include tree planting, peat restoration and water quality improvement projects.
• The £30m seed public investment will drive much greater investment from the private sector to invest in nature projects in England to help tackle climate change.
• Investment generated through the fund will support new woodland creation in England – equivalent to 15-16 million trees of new planting. The fund will also support peatland restoration and habitat creation.
• The Big Nature Impact Fund will boost the economy through new nature recovery projects that will create green jobs, secure existing ones and open up new avenues in UK green finance.
• Projects will generate revenue to provide a financial return for investors by selling high-integrity carbon and biodiversity units to businesses to help them fulfil their net zero commitments and biodiversity net gain obligations.

At the UN CBD meeting in Montreal in December, the United Kingdom will:

• Seek further support for the target to protect at least 30% of the land and of the ocean globally by 2030 (‘30by30’)
• Continue leading calls for ambitious and meaningful outcomes for the ocean
• Aim to provide a significant increase in the mobilisation of resources from all sources to fund the global effort to halt nature loss.
• Look to strengthen mechanisms for holding countries to account for implementing the framework.
• Work towards agreement on ensuring that benefits arising from the use of biodiversity are shared with the communities that take care of them

Forests

• The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Multi-Donor Trust Fund for the Amazon is a new initiative that will work to promote forest protection and sustainable development across the Amazon. As part of the initiative, the UK will work together with the IDB, Amazon countries and other key regional stakeholders, and partners such as the Netherlands and Germany, to fund innovative projects that improve management of vital forest landscapes, support sustainable, nature-positive livelihoods for indigenous people and local communities, and upscale economic solutions to eliminate deforestation and ecosystem degradation. The initiative will deliver support across eight Amazon countries – Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Guyana, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Suriname.
• In addition, we invested over £2 million through  the Mobilising Finance for Forests programme in projects to conserve, restore and sustainably manage two million hectares of tropical forest landscapes that will reduce emissions significantly by 2030.
• This year, the UK has also invested through the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) an additional £800,000 in climate security projects tackling the illegal drivers of deforestation in the Amazon region.

Mangroves breakthrough:

• The Mangrove Breakthrough was launched by the Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) in conjunction with Nigel Topping and the UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions (HLCs). They  launched at COP27 on 10 November with endorsements from states (including the UK) and non-state actors.
• The Mangrove Breakthrough’s aims to catalyse the financial support needed to achieve its target of $4bn corresponding to 15million hectares of mangroves globally by 2030, through collective action on halting mangrove loss, restoring half of recent losses, doubling protection of mangroves globally, and ensuring sustainable long-term finance for all existing mangroves.
• The ambition aligns with Defra and HMG priorities to champion ocean-climate action and to drive forward a step change in nature-based solutions, including under the Blue Planet Fund, and towards the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests, recognising mangroves as blue forests.

GO-BC:

• Defra provides support for the running of Global Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon (GO-BC), a new research programme within the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. GO-BC It is looking to build blue carbon scientific capability (in part through launching its global graduate scheme) and exploring potential blue carbon research projects it will endorse (one such project where there could be future opportunities for collaboration is the Convex Seascape Survey).

Glasgow legacy

• The Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use is part of the ambitious legacy from COP26. Led by the United Kingdom, 145 countries – representing over 90% of the world’s forests – signed a pledge to halt deforestation and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and rural transformation. This commitment will deliver resilient and inclusive growth and accelerate efforts to limit global warming.  Countries now need to deliver on their Glasgow commitments and the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership – launched earlier this week – will play a critical part in driving this through providing accountability and space for enhanced cooperation. The declaration was signed by 145 countries at COP26. For more information visit: Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use – UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) at the SEC – Glasgow 2021 (ukcop26.org)
• COP26 also gave much greater prominence to the ocean’s role in climate action. Since Glasgow, the United Kingdom has increased support to developing countries through the flagship £500m Blue Planet Fund to support adaptation to climate change and build sustainable, prosperous coastal communities. The United Kingdom will build on this ambition at COP15, seeking agreement of an ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
• The 10 Point Plan is a political blueprint that defines a clear pathway for bridging the global nature finance gap and to manage the significant risks of biodiversity loss to the global economy and public health. It was launched at the UN General Assembly (UNGA 77) on 20 September 2022. 17 countries have signed up to the 10 Point Plan, led by Ecuador, Gabon, Maldives and the UK. The plan demonstrates the role that all sources of finance have to play, including domestic, international, public and private. It has a particular focus on how international, public finance can support developing countries to accelerate the transition to become nature positive. The 10 Point Plan for financing biodiversity – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance:

• ORRAA is a multi-sector collaboration connecting the international finance and insurance sectors, governments, non-profits, and stakeholders from the Global South to pioneer finance products that incentivise investment into coastal and ocean Nature-based Solutions. The Alliance’s goal, by 2030, is to activate at least $500 million of investment into this space, and in so doing, help build the resilience of at least 250 million climate vulnerable coastal people Homepage – ORRAA (oceanriskalliance.org)

• The new Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) will mobilise $20 billion [£17bn] over the next three to five years to accelerate a just energy transition.
• The UK stands ready to support delivery of the partnership, including through a $1 billion World Bank guarantee. ¹
• The Indonesia JETP launch builds on momentum of other JETP progress during the COP27 Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined other world leaders at the G20 today [15 November] to launch the Indonesia Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) at the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) side event.

This country-led partnership will help Indonesia pursue an accelerated just energy transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable sources. The JETP includes an ambitious pathway to reduce power sector emissions, a strategy based on the expansion of renewable energy, and the phase down of coal. This transition will not only deliver enhanced climate action, but will help support economic growth, new skilled jobs, reduced pollution, and a resilient, prosperous future for Indonesians.

The agreement focuses on achieving this transition in a way that considers all workers, communities and societal groups affected directly or indirectly by an energy transition away from coal, and helps to ensure that they are supported through concrete commitments.

The JETP model was pioneered at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow last year, where South Africa and an International Partners Group (IPG) of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Union announced a ground-breaking long-term $8.5bn JETP, setting a new precedent in the global just energy transition.

Indonesia is the second country to launch a JETP. Among the world’s ten largest greenhouse gas emitters, Indonesia is now accelerating its transition to clean energy through the JETP’s strengthened commitments to maximise the use of abundant renewable energy resources and a strong political commitment to phase down coal-fired power in the medium-term.

In support of these commitments and actions, the Indonesia JETP will mobilise $20 billion over the next three to five years. $10 billion of public money will be mobilised by the IPG members and at least $10bn of private finance will be mobilised and facilitated by the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) Working Group.

The United Kingdom has been an instrumental member of the IPG helping to agree this ambitious new JETP with Indonesia. The UK stands ready to support delivery of the partnership, including through a $1 billion World Bank guarantee. This facility will allow the Government of Indonesia to extend their borrowing on affordable World Bank terms by up to $1 billion.

The partnership will be a long-term political agreement between the Government of Indonesia and an IPG comprising the United States of America and Japan as joint leads, along with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the European Union, Canada, Italy, Norway, and Denmark.

Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak said:

“I am proud to launch a new Just Energy Transition Partnership with the Government of Indonesia. This will unlock billions in private finance for new green infrastructure.”

COP26 President, Alok Sharma said:

“Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are an innovative finance model that I am proud to say came out of COP26 and embody the ambition we called for in Glasgow. They provide a means for partner countries to work with climate finance donors and private sector investors on a clean, just energy transition to create new jobs, economic growth, clean air and a resilient, prosperous future.

“This country-led partnership will support Indonesia to accelerate its transition away from coal as part of the country’s commitment to its 2060 net zero target”.

The Indonesia JETP launch builds on the momentum from the COP27 Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, which saw progress on implementing the South Africa JETP and commitment to launch a JETP with Viet Nam this year ² . It demonstrates progress on the UK-launched G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). JETPs are a core delivery mechanism of PGII, which aims to narrow the infrastructure investment gap in developing countries ³ .

Just ahead of COP27, South Africa released their Just Energy Transition Investment Plan which outlines clear pathways for implementation. At COP27, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met with the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, along with the European Union, United States of America, Germany, and France to discuss the JETP. Following this key milestone, a 12 month update on progress in advancing the South Africa JETP was published which acknowledges the progress made and outlines the next steps in this long-term partnership.

At COP27, COP26 President Alok Sharma, met with Tran Hong Ha, Vietnam’s Minister for Natural Resources and Environment to discuss a potential JETP between the IPG and Vietnam. Minister Ha and Mr. Sharma recommitted to finalising the details of an ambitious political declaration and package of financial support for Viet Nam’s energy transition, with the intent to launch the agreement before the end of 2022.

Work also continues between the IPG and the Government of India towards concluding a partnership on just energy transition in 2023 during India’s G20 Presidency. The IPG is also working closely with the Government of Senegal to explore a way forward for a JETP. Further details will be shared in due course.

¹ Government has agreed to provide a guarantee. Parliament will be consulted before the final guarantee is signed.

² https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cop26-president-meeting-with-vietnamese-minister-ha-8-november-2022

³ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/g7-leaders-statement-partnership-for-infrastructure-and-investment

Businesses will be given an additional 2 years to apply new product safety marking, giving thousands of businesses the freedom to focus on growth, Business Secretary Grant Shapps has announced today (Monday 14 November).

The UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking has been introduced as part of the UK’s own robust regulatory framework. It shows that products comply with our product safety regulations which are designed to protect consumers.

However, given the difficult economic conditions created by post-pandemic shifts in demand and supply, alongside Putin’s war in Ukraine and the associated high energy prices, the government does not want to burden business with the requirement to meet the original (31 December 2022) deadline.

The government will continue to recognise the CE marking for 2 years, therefore allowing businesses until 31 December 2024 to prepare for the UKCA marking. Businesses can also use the UKCA marking, giving them flexibility to choose which marking to apply.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said:

The government is determined to remove barriers to businesses so they can get on with their top priorities, like providing quality customer service, enabling growth and supporting their staff.

This move will give businesses the breathing space and flexibility they need at this crucial time and ensure that our future system for product safety marking is fit for purpose, providing the highest standard for consumers without harming businesses.

To support manufacturers, the government is also reviewing the wider product safety framework, ensuring we minimise the burdens on business while keeping our system up to date with new innovative methods such as e-labelling.

As part of this, the government will make it easier than ever for businesses to apply product markings.

This package will give thousands of businesses, including electronics and lift manufacturers, additional time to focus on delivering growth and creating jobs, while giving them flexibility in how they meet their legal obligations.

There will be different rules for medical devices, construction products, cableways, transportable pressure equipment, unmanned aircraft systems, rail products, and marine equipment. Government departments responsible for these sectors are making sector specific arrangements.

Notes to editors

The UKCA marking covers most goods which previously required the CE marking, known as ‘new approach’ goods, in addition to aerosols that previously required the ‘reverse epsilon’ marking.

Whilst the UKCA marking can be used now this extension means businesses can choose to use the CE marking until 31 December 2024.

This sits alongside measures to reduce the costs of retesting products and labelling.

To reduce labelling costs, we will allow businesses to affix the UKCA marking and include importer information for products from EEA countries on an accompanying document or label until 31 December 2027.

We will also allow conformity assessment activities for CE marking undertaken by 31 December 2024 to be used by manufacturers as the basis for the UKCA marking, until 31 December 2027.

To extend the deadline, the government has today laid secondary legislation before Parliament which, subject to parliamentary approval, will implement these measures.

Businesses have been able to use the UKCA mark since 1 January 2021 to demonstrate their conformity with product standards in England, Scotland and Wales.

Under the terms of the Protocol, Northern Ireland will continue to recognise the CE marking for goods placed on the market in Northern Ireland. They will need to use the UKNI marking if they use a UK Conformity Assessment Body to test their products.

The government has published the UK Market Conformity Assessment Bodies database which businesses can use to identify the appropriate body to certify their products.

To find out which regulations apply to your product, businesses should read the Product safety for businesses: A to Z of industry, guidance published by the Office for Product Safety and Standards.

The UK is today leading a global agreement to make green technologies cheaper and more accessible around the world, while also creating green jobs for generations both at home and abroad, Grant Shapps said today (11 November).

Speaking at the COP27 negotiations in Egypt, the Business Secretary announced over £65 million investment to help speed up the development of new green technologies – backed by the talent and expertise of British business.

This builds on the legacy of COP26 in Glasgow, where the UK founded a coalition of countries to scale and speed up the development and deployment of clean technologies and drive down costs this decade, known as the Breakthrough Agenda.

Mr Shapps said it will be the efforts of entrepreneurs, innovators and the international community that will help cut global emissions in the coming decade and achieve net zero by 2050 – something today’s investments will help achieve.

These measures will help expand a whole global market in clean energy technologies, making them accessible and affordable to developing countries – and enabling UK companies to share their talent and expertise in this vital and growing industry.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said:

Green means growth, and with our existing talents in clean technologies, UK businesses could be world leaders in an industry that will only expand, creating jobs for generations to come while also protecting our precious planet.

At COP27 we are leading international efforts to ensure these new innovations can be more accessible and affordable to heavy, energy-intensive industries in some of the world’s poorest countries.

These agreements are a key part of us achieving our net zero targets and our global efforts to cut emissions – but I am also proud that they will mean more countries will benefit from the knowledge and expertise we have nurtured here on UK shores.

The UK is already a world leader in the latest green technologies, ranging from the development of hydrogen as an alternative fuel, to the manufacture of electric vehicles.

Today’s announcements not only highlight the UK’s leading position on tackling climate change, they also show how this country is influencing international markets to go greener, in a way that gives the UK an advantage over other countries in delivering jobs, growth and investment in the UK.

The Business Secretary today announced:

• that the UK has built a coalition of governments, representing more than half of global GDP, who will take forward actions to speed up the development of new alternatives to fossil fuels for the carbon-intensive sectors, so that by 2030 they use the cheapest and most attractive options available to businesses in emerging and developing economies
• a UK pledge of £65 million towards the world’s first large scale Industry Transition Programme, by the Climate Investment Funds, to support energy-intensive industries in developing economies including India and Indonesia to go green
• UK government’s support, alongside Germany, for a new funding window for projects developing innovative and transformational clean technologies. Set to open in 2023, this funding from the Mitigation Action Facility will go to key priority sectors – energy, transport and industry – identified in the Breakthrough Agenda at COP27. This will support developing countries to achieve their goals for tackling climate change and reducing emissions

This comes on top of the Prime Minister’s announcement of a further £65.5 million for the Clean Energy Innovation Facility, which provides grants to researchers and scientists to accelerate the development of innovative clean energy technologies in developing countries. Since the UK-led fund was launched in 2019 it has so far supported 76 projects, including the creation of biomass-powered refrigeration in India, prototype lithium-ion batteries in Nigeria and clean hydrogen-based fuels for steel production in Morocco, among other innovations. Its beneficiaries have praised the programme for its ability to identify business and community needs as it unlocks innovation opportunities.

Notes to editors

Breakthrough Agenda

The Breakthrough Agenda was agreed at COP26 in Glasgow between the UK and 46 other countries to help some of the highest emitting sectors of the global economy to decarbonise.  At COP27, a coalition of governments representing more than half of global GDP will launch the Breakthrough Agenda Priority Actions, which will support the key sectors of power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture, working to decarbonise them by 2030 by making clean technology in those sectors affordable and accessible to all.

The programme announced today are:

Climate Investment Funds’ Industry Transition Programme

• the CIF Industry Transition programme aims to overcome the challenges of decarbonisation within the industrial sector (with a focus on manufacturing sectors such as iron, steel, cement, glass, chemicals and petrochemicals, pulp and paper, and mining). This is especially important as heavy industry has shifted to emerging and developing countries, where there are huge differences in technological standards and regulations, and where the Industrial sector is expected to become the largest source of emissions within a decade
• a country of expression interest will be launched shortly after COP27

Climate Investment Funds (CIF)

• the UK is the largest investor and a founding member of the multilateral Climate Investment Funds (CIF), which speeds up climate action in clean energy and transport technology, energy access, Nature and climate adaptation and resilience. It works exclusively through Multilateral Development Banks as implementing partners

On Monday 7 November at COP27, the Prime Minister announced up to £65.5 million to expand the UK’s Clean Energy Innovation Facility (CEIF):

• the Facility aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies in developing countries and the expansion is a key part of the UK government’s £1 billion Ayrton Fund commitment for clean energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) in countries eligible to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA)
• the existing £50 million CEIF programme was launched in 2019 and currently contains 4 thematic funds, managed by leading delivery partners in those themes: sustainable cooling innovation (International Finance Corporation), industrial decarbonisation innovation (World Bank), energy storage innovation (Innovate UK) and smart energy innovation (Asian Development Bank)

Mitigation Action Facility (previously known as the NAMA Facility)

• the NAMA Facility (NF) is a multi-donor fund established in 2012 by the United Kingdom  and Germany later joined by Denmark, the European Commission, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF)
• Germany and the UK both contribute approximately 45% of funding to NF
• on 11 November 2022 NF’s new name ‘Mitigation Action Facility’ was presented at COP27
• the overarching aim of Mitigation Action Facility is to enable ODA-eligible countries to reduce their emissions through implementing sectoral decarbonisation projects as building blocks of NDC implementation
• the Facility awards high value grants (up to EUR 25 million) to projects that have a combination of a permanent policy shift (to create an enabling environment) and capital investment to create financing offers for scaling up deployment of clean technologies
• the projects must have a government sponsor, so it provides an effective diplomatic tool to our teams at Post for bilateral engagement.
• going forward the Mitigation Action Facility will be focused on energy, industry and transport sectors – supporting the Breakthrough Agenda Report recommendations

Introduction

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us at this Cyber Essentials showcase event. I’m very excited to be here today, and it is great to see so many people here from a range of organisations including large and small businesses, government departments, trade bodies and charities. I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to attend and celebrate this fantastic event with all of us here at DCMS.

It has been great to hear about the Cyber Essentials journey from Chris [Pinder, IASME] and Lindy [Cameron, CEO, National Cyber Security Centre], and some of the noteworthy milestones of the scheme over the past 8 years. It is amazing to be able to say that the 100,000th certificate was awarded a few months ago, and I know that many of you here today are Cyber Essentials certified and are counted in that number.

The UK government is working to make the UK the safest place to live and work online. DCMS plays a critical role in strengthening the UK’s cyber ecosystem and building a resilient and thriving digital UK, in line with our £2.6 billion National Cyber Strategy. As part of that strategy, we are committed to increasing the uptake of standards such as Cyber Essentials. To date, Cyber Essentials has had a profound impact in driving improved cyber security across a wide range of organisations. It is becoming increasingly embedded within our economy and it is playing a vital role in driving a more resilient and prosperous UK.

We regularly hear from organisations that are benefitting from the scheme – from large blue chip companies to small organisations and local charities, helping the most vulnerable in society – a small managed service provider in Northern Ireland, a nursing home in Liverpool, a domestic abuse charity in the Midlands and a charity supporting those with visual or hearing loss in Scotland – are just a few organisations that have gone through the Cyber Essentials scheme recently.

We have heard a lot about growth today, not just of the Cyber Essentials scheme itself but of the entire ecosystem that surrounds it. It is also helping improve all organisations’ productivity and growth as they securely embrace digital technologies. The government’s vision is for this growth to continue, especially in the face of economic adversity. We want to raise awareness of the scheme, to see an exponential increase in the number of Cyber Essentials certifications and to raise the baseline of cyber resilience across the economy. We want all organisations in the UK to be working towards Cyber Essentials. To do this, we need organisations to be asking their suppliers, partners and other third parties they engage with to have it. Most suppliers to government need to have Cyber Essentials and we believe that organisations across the wider economy should be asking their own suppliers to do likewise and that is our ask of you today – to promote and use Cyber Essentials as a key tool when assessing the security of your suppliers.

Supply chains

I know a lot of you are grappling with cyber security challenges in your supply chains. Worrying incidents have shown us that exploiting supply chain vulnerabilities can have severe, far reaching consequences. In the supply chain call for views we published last year, 46% of organisations said a lack of tools is a severe barrier to managing their supplier risk.

I believe Cyber Essentials has an important role to play here. It is not a silver bullet and does not guarantee organisations won’t  fall victim to a cyber attack, but it does provide protection and resilience for so many. In our engagements with industry, including many of you, we are seeing an increasing number of organisations use Cyber Essentials as a tool to assure themselves that third parties, including suppliers, have implemented minimum cyber security controls.

For example, the NHS recently introduced a requirement for IT suppliers to have Cyber Essentials, thus raising the bar for those organisations that wish to do business with the NHS.  Other organisations have seen reduced costs and increased efficiency in their due diligence processes by requiring suppliers to have Cyber Essentials. A well known property website recently told us that asking for Cyber Essentials from suppliers has reduced their due diligence process from days to hours. For them, Cyber Essentials has a commercial benefit and is saving them money.

In a similar vein, we are delighted to announce that DCMS is now working in partnership with St James’s Place, a large financial services firm, who have recently required all of their partners to become Cyber Essentials Plus certified. We will hear more from them in our panel discussion in just a few minutes, but this is a great example of an organisation proactively driving improved security practices in those organisations they work so closely with.

Cyber Essentials Pathways

Now, it would be remiss of me to not recognise the fact that for some organisations, especially those with large and complex IT infrastructures, it is a struggle to comply with all aspects of Cyber Essentials. As Lindy mentioned, we are looking forward to seeing the results of the Cyber Essentials Pathways pilot and anticipate this will provide a further opportunity for organisations to attain Cyber Essentials. We want to ensure that being Cyber Essentials certified is accessible for all organisations. To this end, we are also in the process of launching an evaluation of the scheme, to help us identify and address any barriers that organisations face when going through the Cyber Essentials process.

Conclusion

On that note, I wanted to close by saying that my officials and I would love to hear from you, to better understand how DCMS and industry can work together to ensure Cyber Essentials is an effective certification scheme. I invite you to collaborate with us, to join us on the journey to improve Cyber Essentials and ensure it continues to raise the baseline level of cyber security across our supply chains.

The new government remains intent on improving cyber security across our economy. Our Product Security and Telecoms Infrastructure Bill is close to completing its passage through Parliament and when it becomes law, this will ensure much better security in consumer IoT products. We are also working to improve our cyber resilience legislation and expand the number of skilled people working in cyber security. We’re continuing to build our digital identity framework, which will help the public and businesses verify identities in an easy, secure and trustworthy manner.

Together we can reduce the social and economic harm that we continue to see from cyber security attacks and drive a more resilient and prosperous UK. Thank you once again for working with us on this amazing scheme.