The latest waste... persuading the Chinese not to buy ivory trinkets

ANTI-IVORY SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

THE Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs is using £13million of development money on projects to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. Nearly a quarter of a million pounds was given to the Wildlife Conservation Society for a social media campaign to reduce ivory consumption in China.

HOSPITAL STAYS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS

The Department for Health uses aid money to pay for healthcare provided to asylum seekers. In the first year after arrivals make a claim, their use of services such as GPs and hospitals is covered from the aid budget.

BURYING FUMES IN CHINA

The Department of Energy and Climate Change lavished £60million on a scheme to help countries including China reduce their carbon emissions by catching and then burying fumes. Carbon capture and storage technology takes emissions from power plants and industry for storage underground. A Whitehall report last year warned there had been ‘some delays’ in a pilot project in Tianjin which it said had ‘stalled’. The department has since become part of the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

3D MODEL OF TUNISIAN PALACE

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is using aid cash to fund a £30million project to protect and preserve monuments and religious sites, as well as inherited traditions, in the Middle East and North Africa where Islamic State has gained power. Schemes include spending £93,000 on producing a 3D interactive model of the Ksar Said Palace in Tunis, Tunisia, which has been closed to the public for the past 50 years.