E-Paper
US to double climate finance support to aid low-income nations: Biden at UNGA
US President Joe Biden said the country will increase the financial support from $5.7 billion to $11.2 billion annually by 2024 to help least developed nations adapt to climate change and shift to clean energy.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his country would increase its support to climate finance from $5.7 billion to $11.2 billion by 2024 to help low-income countries adapt to climate change and shift to cleaner energy.
Addressing the opening plenary of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time since assuming the presidency of the US, Joe Biden called on the world leaders to join forces “to build a better future” and to address joint challenges such as climate change.
Biden said his administration would work with US Congress to double the pledge of $5.7 billion in climate fund, taken in April this year, and make the country a “leader in international climate finance.”
Biden opened his speech at the UN General Assembly by appealing to the world leaders to address the threats of climate change and health hazards.
“Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes and devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future,” Biden said.
The US President described climate change and the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic as “urgent and looming crises wherein lie enormous opportunities,” if the globe can “work together to seize” them.
Over the past decade, the United States has been a laggard when it comes to climate finance. Former US President Barack Obama pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, the United Nation’s flagship climate finance initiative, but delivered just $1 billion before leaving office, according to a report by Climate Home.
However, his successor Donald Trump went back on that pledge and in 2017-18 the US delivered less climate finance than France, Germany, Japan or the United Kingdom despite having an economy larger than all of them combined.
In his speech on Tuesday, Biden said that the world was approaching a “point of no return” and reeling from “widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis”. He urged all nations to bring their “highest possible ambitions to the table” when leaders meet at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November.
COP26 president Alok Sharma took to Twitter to hail Biden’s announcement.
The accord calls for public, multilateral and private financing of $100 billion a year from 2020-2025 to assist poor nations already coping with floods, heatwaves, rising seas and superstorms made worse by climate change.
