Introduction
Climate-triggered tensions are rising more than we thought, everywhere worldwide. Across many countries, we have seen the devastating effects of climate change and its obvious manifestations through flooding, heatwaves, erosion, drought, and wildfires.
Research shows that the people and countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis are often those experiencing its worst impacts. South Asia, Africa, and Latin America are especially vulnerable, placing these regions at significant risk from climate-related disasters. In most cases, many countries are reeling from the devastating impact of climate-induced disasters that require urgent action. In Ethiopia, Kabena, a small village in the Afar region in the north-west of the country, has continued to face climate-related challenges as increased rainfall threatens the livelihood and survival of the village’s agricultural sector.
The global trend of climate-driven humanitarian disasters is ubiquitous across many countries of the world; however, its impact is becoming increasingly worrying for economically disadvantaged countries with less support available for communities. Also, it has been reported that the extreme weather that El Niño will cause could potentially exacerbate the challenges for farmers and communities in Africa and India.
It’s not only post-climate-disaster humanitarian efforts in the Global South that are facing financial strain; programmes that are helping people prepare for storms have also been severed. In the Philippines, the closure of USAID and cuts to the work of local NGOs such as the Centre for Disaster Preparedness (CDP) have hugely affected the charity’s ability to help communities design their own response structures.
In 2025, Typhoon Ragasa, the most powerful storm recorded on Earth that year, killed more than 20 people in Manila and Taiwan after widespread landslides and flooding. With tropical storms on the rise, the country’s vulnerability to climate disasters and its inability to mobilise resources to adapt to climate realities have made the situation precarious for millions of people.
For millions of people across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, daily economic and social life has now been undermined by climate change. The weather continues to warm, and annual surface air temperature has increased significantly. In Tanzania, the regular rainy and dry seasons have been altered, with farmers now facing long rainy seasons that lead to flooding or extended dry seasons that culminate in drought.
The intensity of these problems has raised the important question of how communities can be supported in addressing local issues that are obvious consequences of a global dilemma. Therefore, as remittances increase in the wake of aid funding cuts, UK-based African, Latin American, and Caribbean diaspora communities could provide significant support.
Cutting The Support System
As public health, environmental, and social crises intensify across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, a new global aid landscape is emerging. Many countries that once pledged support for economically disadvantaged nations are now moving away from international aid, a new approach driven largely by rising geopolitical tensions and growing pressure to increase defence spending in an increasingly volatile world. In the wake of funding cuts, and with the emergence of a new international aid landscape, systems that support communities worldwide are being dismantled to pave the way for an investment financing model.
The UK, which has historically led international efforts to provide climate finance, is stepping down support in the aftermath of sweeping aid cuts, which saw international aid spending reduced by 40 per cent. The reality around the new aid regime became glaringly clear when the UK’s Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, confirmed that the country’s climate finance commitment would be cut to around £2bn a year, down from £2.3bn annually under the previous five-year arrangement, while citing the need to fund increased defence spending.
Similarly, the shifting political agenda in the United States, the biggest aid donor globally, has contributed to a significant cut in climate project financing in some of the world’s poorest countries. The signing of the executive order titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid” in January 2025, followed by the formal closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has seen a drastic drop in the aid budget for countries whose communities are fighting public health and environmental issues.
Data from the Independent UK’s Rethinking Global Aid project has revealed that only 29 per cent of global humanitarian funding needs were met in 2025 following cuts, thus showing the inability of other developed countries to support disaster response in countries such as Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia.
Reduced funding for wildlife conservation by the US, coupled with the UK’s slashing of its nature conservation funding for developing countries, has also raised alarm over efforts to address the effects of climate change on some of the world’s poorest countries, which are least responsible for the climate crisis. This decline in aid will mean that countries must explore new options to finance their climate adaptation and mitigation priorities.
This decline in aid will mean that countries must explore new options to finance their climate adaptation and mitigation priorities.
A New Transnational Approach
The current situation is quite critical. Addressing the climate crisis cannot be pushed back on the agenda, despite the inadequacy of the local political systems in many countries to drive climate mitigation effectively and adaptation programmes. Most of the vulnerable countries in the Global South have remained structurally dependent on international assistance due to both institutional and fiscal deficits. Some have also posited that Western countries have a moral duty to support these countries, largely due to years of colonial extraction and the entrenchment of the capitalist-oriented system that has increased carbon emissions from countries such as the USA, China, and those in Europe.
However, a new path requires familiar voices to claim the mantle of climate leadership in places far from home. The Global South diaspora has a huge role to play in acting as a bridge, as the reduction in international development aid accelerates the decline in the fight against the climate catastrophe. Even though this is vital, diaspora engagement through financial, resource, and policy influence should only complement government and other multilateral efforts.
The shifting geopolitical tensions and the increasing influence of diaspora voices in many Western societies have made the initiation of a new dialogic path necessary. Rather than waiting to rebuild from afar when disaster strikes, as we witnessed with the Jamaican diaspora’s response after hurricanes Beryl and Melissa in 2024 and 2025, sustained diasporic engagement pre-disaster could unlock more resources for recovery and community development.
Despite the progress that has been made over the years, Global South diaspora voices remain under-represented in climate policy spaces, funding decisions, and public climate narratives. Thus, it is important to create and coordinate more diaspora voices, which will be crucial to driving philanthropic support towards important issues that affect rural communities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Diaspora communities can also shape the global mitigation efforts of their home countries by being proactively involved in the climate policies of developed countries. Such involvement could be crucial to the development of a just transition plan and climate targets that reduce the impact of developed countries on other countries.
Historically, remittance flows into many developing countries increase after major disasters such as flooding, typhoons, and other climate shocks. Even though they are not a silver bullet and are mostly targeted at households, research has found that they can be crucial for vulnerable households to prepare for climate shocks.
Furthermore, diaspora members’ efforts towards driving conservation and climate preparedness, if complemented by Global South countries, which are often Official Development Assistance (ODA)-recipient countries, could prove helpful in continuing life-saving initiatives in those countries. Also, by providing “remittance matching”, through which every dollar donated by diaspora members would be matched by donor or national funds, the diaspora population could be pivotal in financing future climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives.
What Role Can Transnational Climate Networks Play?
In another breath, diaspora populations based in other countries can be the ground zero to drive transnational climate action that has the potential to achieve big results. While we have seen examples of diaspora organisations mobilising funds post-disaster, new transnational climate networks can be crucial in accelerating climate goals through high-level policy engagement and participation in international climate dialogues.
While we have seen examples of diaspora organisations mobilising funds post-disaster, new transnational climate networks can be crucial in accelerating climate goals through high-level policy engagement and participation in international climate dialogues.
Over the years, we have seen the African business community abroad committing huge funding and other forms of investment into the continent; such efforts must be extended to fostering climate action among civil societies and other organisations in many developing countries, with the help of experts, academics and other professionals from the diaspora.
Furthermore, transnational climate networks could also play a huge role in main streaming climate policies in many countries. They could also be a strong partner in helping countries vulnerable to climate change with skills, resources, and expertise. For example, a diaspora youth-led initiative, Somalis for Sustainability, is a global movement connecting diaspora communities, policymakers, civil society, and local partners to understand and respond to the climate and environmental challenges affecting the Somali Horn. This network has since taken the climate concerns of community members in Somalia to COP29 while also providing support to local youth through a UN-backed conference.
Similarly, diaspora groups from Ghana, Jamaica, and Moldova have also been at the forefront of climate action by working with stakeholders in these countries to address climate action. Although with minimal success, these networks have huge potential to leverage their connections, as well as their expertise, to drive participation and awareness of climate impacts within the diaspora and support climate initiatives. As such, building and strengthening transnational climate networks could accelerate the work of development partners in developing countries.
Ultimately, the diaspora’s role in addressing climate action, even though it brings so much optimism for many vulnerable countries, cannot replace lost aid or the government’s role in protecting nature and mitigating climate effects. However, bringing diaspora voices together by pooling both human and financial resources can be a game-changer as communities continue to fight crises, conflict and climate change.