Joint Fact Sheet: The U.S.-UK Partnership for Global Development

Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama reaffirm our commitment to changing the lives of the 1.2 billion poor people in the world today. Recent success and new technologies provide hope and opportunities to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Combating poverty, mitigating disasters and preventing conflict is morally right and is firmly in line with our respective national interests and fundamental values.  The President and Prime Minister are pleased to announce our collective interventions to achieve the best results for the world’s poorest people—advance economic growth, prevent conflict in fragile states, improve global health particularly for girls and women, and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Climate Change
Without urgent global action, climate change could reverse our hard-won gains and increase the risk of insecurity and fragility in many parts of the world. The United States and the United Kingdom therefore continue to seek to hold the increase in temperature below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. We also continue to work towards implementing the key agreements reached in Cancun, including making the very best use of the climate financing and encouraging innovation that will help the poorest countries get on a climate resilient, low emissions path to sustainable economic growth and development.  By employing existing technologies, such as drought and flood resistant crops, and new ways of delivery clean and affordable energy, we will work with the private sector and other stakeholders to ramp up investments in clean technologies while protecting the world’s precious forests and rich biodiversity. Our support for the REDD+ partnership will increase the incomes of the 1.2 billion of the world’s poorest people who depend on forests for their livelihoods.