The UK will have £3bn of international climate finance on nature and biodiversity that it can spend over the next five years.

Boris Johnson made the announcement earlier this month to the One Planet Summit in Paris, where he said it was necessary to protect nature and sustainable food production.

“Obviously it’s right to focus on climate change, obviously it’s right to cut CO2 emissions but we won’t achieve a real balance with our planet unless we protect nature as well,” said the prime minister.

Prince Charles also spoke at the event and called on businesses to do more to protect the planet.

Katie White, executive director of advocacy and campaigns at WWF, said: “As the Environment Bill returns to Parliament this month, the Government has an opportunity to set ambitious new laws to end deforestation, reduce our global footprint and set nature on the path to recovery.”

COP President Alok Sharma said: “We have seen ambitious commitments from across the world to net zero targets to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. But targets can only be met through action. We must preserve nature and our biodiversity, and move more quickly from coal to clean power. It is fantastic to see billions of pounds pledged today to support efforts to reduce deforestation and degradation, and to accelerate the transition to clean energy. By working together, on the road to COP26, we can make faster progress towards a sustainable future for our planet.”

This climate finance announcement is the latest in a series of actions the UK government has announced to tackle climate change.