Congress Poised to Torpedo Biden’s Climate Finance Commitment

Jennifer A Dlouhy
·3 min read
18

(Bloomberg) -- The Democratically controlled US Congress is poised to undercut President Joe Biden’s promise of $11.4 billion in annual international climate finance to help countries deal with the ravages of global warming.

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In a massive government spending bill unveiled early on Tuesday, lawmakers laid out plans to pony up less than a tenth of the amount he pledged: $1.057 billion.

That’s likely to further undermine US credibility in international climate negotiations, coming just weeks after the US and roughly 200 other countries agreed to create a new “loss and damage” fund to aid countries bearing the brunt of climate change impacts.

Rich nations still haven’t fulfilled a promise of $100 billion a year in climate finance that was supposed to start flowing by 2020. The US, the biggest laggard in providing that promised support, is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases today. The US contributes less money for international climate finance than Spain, whose economy is 16 times smaller, said Jake Schmidt, a senior strategic director of international climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“This will damage the ability of the US to spur greater climate action outside its borders and continue to put the most vulnerable on the front lines of climate damage,” Schmidt said, calling the proposed spending level “a failure for international climate finance.”

With Republicans taking control of the House in January, the fiscal 2023 budget was seen as the last best chance for Biden to fulfill his commitment. Biden used a United Nations address last year to promise $11.4 billion by 2024, but subsequently asked Congress to provide the money a year earlier.

Congress’ planned climate finance spending would represent an increase of less than 0.1% — or $1 million — over the funding level in fiscal 2022. Some $270 million is earmarked for climate adaptation, $260 million for clean energy programs and $185 million for sustainable landscape initiatives.

Biden will fight to see this fully funded and keep working with Congress “to make achieving this goal in fiscal year 2024 a reality,” the White House said in an emailed statement. “The administration from the president on down has made very clear that meeting the $11 billion goal by fiscal year 2024 is a top priority for us and critical to the success of President Biden’s climate agenda.”

The nearly flat funding proposal comes despite planned increases across other areas of the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs budget, which is set to get a $3.8 billion boost overall. That includes an additional $498.5 million in support for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and polio programs as well as an extra $24.5 million for educational and cultural exchange programs.

It’s a blow to American climate activists who have celebrated big wins in domestic policy with the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, but bemoan relatively small direct US government funding to help other countries confront climate change. Environmentalists had aggressively pushed the administration to unleash spending this year, arguing it was critical to help restore faith in US climate promises while furthering clean energy projects and climate adaptation initiatives overseas.

(Adds White House comment in eighth paragraph)

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