Biden pledges $500 million to fight Amazon deforestation

President Joe Biden announced plans to increase US funding to reduce deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and to help developing countries tackle climate change during a meeting with world leaders on Thursday.

The president, in a virtual meeting with the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, committed $500 million over five years to reduce deforestation in Brazil. The move would make the United States one of the biggest contributors to the Amazon Fund, a conservation program established more than a decade ago. However, this investment would require congressional approval.

Biden also pledged $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations-led program to help developing countries become more resilient to climate change and transition to clean energy sources. The funding would double the country’s overall contribution.

The Biden administration aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and has urged developed countries to provide international climate assistance to the poorest nations. The countries gathered at the forum account for about 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions and global gross domestic product, the White House said.

“The impacts of climate change will be felt most by those who have contributed least to the problem, including developing countries,” Biden said. tell the leaders. “As major economies and major emitters, we need to step up and support those economies.”

The funding comes after the president in 2021 pledged to work with Congress to quadruple U.S. climate support for developing countries to $11.4 billion a year by 2024. The administration is nowhere near to achieve this goal. Last year, the United States approved just $1 billion to help the poorest countries deal with climate change.

“We are at a time of great peril but also of great opportunity, serious possibility,” Biden said. “With the right commitment and follow through from every nation on the – in this room, in this – on this call, the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees can remain within reach.”

The president’s request for additional climate funding will likely face strong opposition from the Republican-controlled House.

Manish Bapna, chairman of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement that the administration’s commitment to the Green Climate Fund is “an important contribution to repaying the environmental debt that the United States and ‘other wealthy countries must step up to support vulnerable communities around the world’. “

Developing countries have pushed for increased aid to reduce emissions and build climate resilience, arguing that wealthy countries like the United States are responsible for much of the climate-related destruction unleashed. through their national broadcasts.

“This money will provide urgently needed climate finance to the world’s most vulnerable countries,” Henry Gonzalez, executive director of the Green Climate Fund, said in a statement.

Thursday’s meeting was the fourth time the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate has met since the president took office.

The Major Economies Forum includes Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, European Commission, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. , United Kingdom and Vietnam.