US Congress offers $1b for climate aid, falling short of Biden’s pledge
The US Congress has proposed US$1 billion to help poor countries cope with climate change, a figure that falls significantly short of President Joe Biden’s promise that the United States will spend US$11.4 billion annually by 2024 to ensure developing nations can transition to clean energy and adapt to a warming planet.
The money is part of a sprawling US$1.7 trillion government spending package that lawmakers made public on Tuesday and are expected to vote on this week.
Democrats had sought US$3.4 billion for various global climate programmes, but Republicans quashed what they called “radical environmental and climate policies” in the spending Bill.
The Republicans are poised to assume control of the House in January, further dimming prospects for additional climate funds for at least the next two years.
The setback for Biden comes a month after he appeared at the COP27 United Nations climate talks in Egypt, where he promised to deliver financial help to developing nations that are suffering from the effects of a climate crisis for which they are ill-prepared and did little to cause.
“The climate crisis is hitting hardest those countries and communities that have the fewest resources to respond and to recover,” Biden told the gathering.
This is the second year in a row in which Congress has reduced the President’s requests for climate aid.
Activists said the inability of the Biden administration to meet its own goals undercut United States credibility abroad and called into question the President’s own commitment to “re-establish the United States as a trustworthy, committed, global leader on climate”.
Democrats blamed Republicans, whose votes are required to pass the spending Bill, which did not include any money for the Green Climate Fund, a UN-led programme.
“Congress just bankrolled a defense Bill that was US$45 billion bigger than the President requested, but we failed to provide a penny to meet our commitments to the Green Climate Fund, a step that would truly help us defend our country and our planet from chaos and instability,” said Democratic Senator Edward Markey.
He said Republicans’ “refusal to engage on climate change in any meaningful way” was responsible for the shortfall.
Saloni Sharma, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement that meeting Biden’s US$11.4 billion goal was a top priority.
“Over the past several weeks and throughout the past weekend, members of the administration worked to secure funding in Financial Year 2023 that puts us on a path to achieving this goal,” she said.
“We will continue to work with Congress to make achieving this goal in FY24 a reality.”
The US$1 billion in international climate money in the spending Bill would be spread over several programmes, including the Climate Investment Funds, which are aimed at helping countries develop clean energy; the Global Environment Facility, a multilateral fund that focuses on biodiversity and tends to win Republican support; and smaller programmes directed at assisting the world’s poorest nations.