In a move that completely falls short of Joe Biden’s pledge to provide $11.4bn a year by 2024, the US Congress has approved $1 billion in international climate finance for 2022.
Calculations by Joe Thwaites, a researcher on global climate finance at the World Resources Institute, shows that the budget is only $387 million more than Trump-era spending.
While describing the bill as “extremely disappointing for climate finance”, Thwaites estimates that If the US continued to scale up at that rate, it would take until 2050 to get to $11.4bn.
Recall that President Biden had promised to restore US credibility on climate action and international cooperation. He stated that providing finance for developing countries to grow sustainably and cope with climate impacts is seen as a critical pillar of that cooperation.
Analysis by the Overseas Development Institute found the US should be providing $45-50 billion of international climate finance every year under a “fair share” calculation that includes the size of its economy and historical emissions.
Read also: New York senators under fire for comparing climate change to 9/11
Sadly, the $1bn voted by Congress is just 2% of the pledged sum.
Director of the climate at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Sarah Colenbrander, was quoted as saying that Biden’s pledges already fell far short of what was needed to demonstrate US commitment to climate action.
“But the new spending bill suggests that Congress is not willing to meet even these inadequate promises,” Colenbrander stated.
On his part, technical lead on climate justice for ActionAid in Ghana, Tontie Binadodescribed the $1bn approved by Congress as “a betrayal” of Biden’s promise to scale up financing for the world’s poorest and climate-vulnerable.
“The ink is not yet dry on the recent IPCC report, showing the awful scale of climate change impacts that are devastating vulnerable countries,” He said. “But with this announcement, the US’ mask has slipped again. How can they pretend to be climate leaders when they refuse to redress the harm they have done to countries like mine?” he said.
Story was adapted from Climate Home News.
