Almost 100 humanitarian and aid organisations, including Oxfam GB, WaterAid and ActionAid UK, have urged prime minister Andy Burnham to tackle global inequality and poverty after his government decided to redirect international climate aid to help fund a cut in UK bus fares. The charities warned that turning climate finance grants into repayable loans could push already debt-burdened developing countries into borrowing further to cope with a crisis they did not cause, and cautioned that the move risks undermining the UK's credibility on international climate action so early in the new administration.

Burnham announced last week that international climate donations would become loans rather than grants, freeing roughly £400 million to help lower the bus fare cap from £3 to £2 next year without breaching government borrowing rules. Critics said the switch could favour middle-income countries able to repay loans over the poorest nations, and called instead for fairer taxation of the wealthiest and biggest polluters to raise public funds. The joint statement, backed by Bond chief executive Romilly Greenhill and WaterAid's Tim Ingram, also urged the UK to use its upcoming G20 presidency to push for reform of the global financial system.