The US is providing $1bn to the UN Green Climate Fund, the country's first contribution in six years to the global initiative to help developing countries address climate change, US President Joe Biden said today.
Biden announced the funding during a virtual meeting of the US-led Major Economies Forum, where he also called on countries to commit to more aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ahead of the UN Cop 28 climate talks in Dubai later this year, warning that the world is at risk of falling short of what is needed to limit global warming.
"We all need to show up in Dubai with 2030 targets and actions aligned with the Paris temperature goals," he said. "We're already seeing the signs of what's to come if we don't: more severe droughts, more floods, seas rising, temperatures rising, weather instability, market unpredictability."
The funding will bring the total contribution to the fund from the US to $2bn.
The US had pledged $3bn to the climate fund under former president Barack Obama, but previously delivered just one-third of the money before he left office.
Developed countries had pledged to contribute $100bn/yr by 2020 to help developing nations address climate change, but they have so far fallen well short of that total to date.
The GCF has received about $18.2bn in confirmed pledges from about 45 countries and the EU, as of 31 March, and is in the process of raising additional funds through its second replenishment.
The lack of greater funding has been a major issue in global climate talks, with some countries warning that that trust in developed nations has been eroded by their failure to deliver on their pledges.
Biden also said he will ask Congress for $500mn over five years for the Amazon Fund and related activities to end deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, and he called on countries to join a US program, the "methane finance sprint," to raise $200mn in new public and philanthropic donor support by Cop 28 to help developing countries reduce methane emissions.
He also said the US is launching a "carbon management challenge," with the aim of bringing countries together to unveil at Cop 28 concrete announcement and goals to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture and removal technologies.
Also released during the meeting is a new International Energy Agency report on pathways for limiting the rise in global temperatures to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. IEA says current international pledges could reduce emissions enough to limit warming to 1.7°C if fully implemented, echoing its previous findings. But it warns that "strong, immediate action" is needed to make good on those pledges. The report focuses on steps needed to decarbonize the energy sector, reduce deforestation, address non-CO2 emissions and use carbon capture technologies for emissions hard-to-abate sectors.
