Last Thursday, President Biden announced that his administration was committing $1 billion to the UN’s Green Climate Fund to help developing nations adapt to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, The Epoch Times reported.
The president announced the move while speaking at the White House’s Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate where he also called for the need to increase the role of “multilateral development banks” in the fight against climate change, including the World Bank. He urged banks to expand climate-related loans.
In a press call on Wednesday, a senior administration official told reporters that the $1 billion in funding would come from “money on hand” and not from the FY2024 budget. When asked what the president would tell countries about his promise to provide $11.4 billion in international climate aid by 2024, an official said the administration was looking into “new and creative authorities” to make good on the funding.
The president also announced $500 million in aid to the Brazilian Development Bank’s Amazon Fund to help that country’s “renewed effort to end deforestation by 2030.” He said the Development Finance Corporation will be sending another $1 billion for conservation efforts in the Amazon and Latin America.
Biden also called on other countries to help in the effort to reduce vehicle emissions by joining “our collective goal” to ensure that half of all new passenger vehicles and 30 percent of trucks have “zero emissions” by 2030.
On Friday, Biden also announced a global initiative to raise $90 billion for the development of new clean energy technologies and pledged that the US would pony up $21.5 billion for the effort, using funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law, CNN reported.
According to the president, the new initiatives would not require approval from Congress. He claimed that they would bolster “energy security” and reduce the cost of energy prices.
