U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday pledged $1 billion to international climate aid fund.
Mr Biden announced $1 billion in US funding during the virtual forum for the UN’s Green Climate Fund and requested $500 million for the Amazon Fund to combat deforestation in Brazil.
The financial injection to the Green Climate Fund brings the U.S. contribution to a total of $2 billion, still short of former President Barack Obama’s initial $3 billion promise, a local news analyst has said.
“The impacts of climate change will be felt the most by those who have contributed the least to the problem, including developing nations,” Biden told the virtual gathering of the the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate.
He added,“As large economies we must support these economies. The fund is critical in ways to helping developing nations that they can’t do now — but it should not be the only way.”
He also announced plans to increase Washington’s support for developing countries in the fight against climate change during the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate.
He invited other MEF countries to join the US in raising at least $200 million by Cop28 to help developing countries mitigate their own methane emissions.
“We have to step up our ambitions. We’re going to have to stand together and meet great challenges and we will preserve our planet in the future,” Mr Biden said.
“As we look forward to Cop28, we all need to show up in Dubai with 2030 targets and actions aligned with the Paris temperature goals. We’re already seeing the signs of what’s to come if we don’t.”
Dubai is hosting the UN Climate Change Conference, or Cop28, in November.
The gathering will have the urgent task of mobilising global action around a “major course correction” to accelerate emissions reductions while ensuring energy security, said the UAE embassy in Washington.
UNDP, NDF partner on EUR500,000 Fund to Green, Resilience Debt
The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) announced its contribution of EUR500,000 to the Green and Resilience Debt Platform, led by UNDP in partnership with UNCDF.
This new partnership addresses the barriers many African and Least Developed Countries face to access green borrowing markets, by unlocking up to US$2 billion in green debt capital markets, resulting in increased resilience of countries to the impacts of climate change.
The announcement comes at a time when the UN Member States are gathered in New York for the 2023 ECOSOC Financing for Development (FfD) Forum, April 17-20, to discuss the most pressing issues facing financing for development.
Karin Isaksson, Managing Director of NDF said, “NDF is committed to supporting Sub-Saharan Africa in addressing climate change, and our aim is to allocate 60 percent of our financing to the region. We welcome the Green and Resilience Debt Platform as a new tool to unlock climate financing at scale.”
“An impactful combination of support to investment readiness, financial de-risking together with technical assistance has the potential to engage the private sector in providing climate-resilient solutions critical for the development of local and regional green debt ecosystems. We will continue to work with our partners to find the best synergies in this shared challenge,” she further stated.
“The Green and Resilience Debt Platform addresses a fundamental gap in access to green debt capital markets for building climate resilience. Investments in clean energy, water, food security, climate resilient infrastructure will have a multiplier effect in creating green jobs and promoting economic growth,” said Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director UNDP Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.
“Africa’s rising economies, bold development ambitions, and growing population mean that its energy use will drastically increase in the coming decades”, explained Ahunna Eziakonwa, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa.
“At a time when countries in Africa are facing mounting challenges to finance their development, this partnership will support their efforts in leveraging the potential of green bonds and unlocking climate finance as a contribution to transitioning to clean energy and creating climate resilience, ” she added.