Biden pledge to double US climate funds
JOE BIDEN has vowed to double the US’s funding of climate aid to poorer countries – hours after Boris Johnson called on world leaders to stump up $100billion (£73billion) to tackle the crisis.
Downing Street welcomed the pledge made at the United Nations yesterday as Mr Biden acknowledged ‘we’re fast approaching a point of no return’.
Speaking as Mr Johnson was travelling to the White House, the president said he would seek the funding from Congress for helping developing nations with climate change.
That would bring the US’s total to $11.4billion (£8.3billion) per year as Mr Biden urged other wealthy countries to do more to tackle the emergency.
‘This year has brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis,’ Mr Biden told the summit in New York.
‘Will we meet the threat of the more challenging climate already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather, or we will we suffer the merciless march of ever worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heatwaves and rising seas?’
Mr Biden said the move would, with increased private finance and contributions from other donors, mean developed countries meet the long-promised goal to deal with the crisis.
Mr Johnson welcomed the funding pledge as a ‘very good start’ that goes ‘a long way’ towards the $100billion goal.
Speaking to reporters at Washington DC’s Union Station, he said the US has ‘stepped up to the plate’, adding: ‘There’s no question that this American action today... will really help us to get there.’
The prime minister had earlier downplayed the chances of hitting the target in time for the UN’s COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.