Congress offers $1 billion for climate aid, short of Biden's pledge

Activists have called funding to help developing countries cope with the impacts of climate change "deeply disappointing".

WASHINGTON — Congress has proposed $1 billion to help poor countries deal with climate change, a figure well below President Biden's pledge that the United States Spend $11.4 billion a year by 2024 to ensure developing countries can transition to clean energy and adapt to a warming planet.

The money is part of a sprawling $1.7 trillion government spending package that lawmakers released early Tuesday and are expected to vote on this week.

Democrats had requested $3.4 billion for various global climate programs, m But Republicans reversed what they called "radical environmental and climate policies" in the spending bill. Republicans are poised to take control of the House in January, further clouding prospects for additional climate funds for at least the next two years.

The downside of Mr Biden comes a month after his appearance at the UN climate talks in Egypt, where he promised to provide financial assistance to developing countries suffering the effects of a climate crisis for which they are ill-prepared and haven't done much.

"The climate crisis is hitting the hardest countries and communities with the fewest resources to respond and recover", Biden said at the rally.

The United States is the country that has historically released the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

This is the second consecutive year in which Congress has reduced the president's requests for climate assistance. Activists said the Biden administration's failure to achieve its own goals is undermining the United States' credibility abroad and calling into question the president's commitment to "restore the United States as a global leader." reliable and climate-committed".

Democrats blamed Republicans, whose votes are needed to pass the spending bill, which did not include any money for the Green Climate Fund, a program run by the United Nations.

"Congress just funded a defense bill that was $45 billion higher to what the president had asked for, but we haven't provided a dime to meet our commitments to the Green Climate Fund – a step that would really help us defend our country and our planet from chaos and instability,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massach usetts. He said Republicans' "refusal to engage on climate change in any meaningful way" was responsible for the shortfall.

A spokesperson for Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Minority Leader, did not respond to a request for comment.

Saloni Sharma, spokesman for the House National Security Council Blanche, said in a statement that Mr. Biden's $11.4 billion target was a top priority. "Over the past few weeks and through the past weekend, members of the administration have been working to secure funding in FY23 that puts us on the path to achieving this goal," he said. she declared. "We will continue to work with Congress to make this FY24 goal a reality."

Helping other nations adapt and mitigate the damage caused by global warming has always been a tough sell in Congress. President Barack Obama pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, but only delivered $1 billion of that money. President Donald J. Trump called the fund a "plan to redistribute wealth out of the United States" and canceled money for it, along with the bulk of other global climate finance.

The $1 billion in international climate money in the spending bill would be spread across several programs, including the Climate Investment Funds, which are housed at the World Bank and aim to help countries develop clean energy; the Global Environment Facility, a multilateral fund that focuses on biodiversity and tends to win Republican support; and smaller programs aimed at helping the world's poorest countries. The money marked a 0.09% increase over the Congressional allocation in 2021.

Meanw...