US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a-one-billion-dollar contribution to the Green Climate Fund. "Today, I'm pleased to announce the United States is going to provide $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund, a fund that is a critical in ways to help developing nations that they can't do now. But it should not be the only way," said Biden in remarks at the 2023 Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate. "I'm calling on development banks to scale up their lending to climate change, which will also accelerate the fight against poverty," he noted. "Today, I'm pleased to announce that I will request the funds so that we can contribute $500 million to the Amazon Fund and other climate-related activities over the next five years to support Brazil's renewed effort to end deforestation by 2030." To that, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that tomorrow, ahead of Earth Day, President Biden will announce additional actions to advance environmental justice and protect communities from the health and environmental impacts of climate change. Biden's pledges bolster the United States' international climate spending against a harsh reality: Republicans stand in the way of the promises he's making to nations most vulnerable to rising temperatures. Biden's $1 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund, a major international climate aid vehicle, sought to burnish US credibility after former President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans had zeroed out US contributions for the program. Biden also said he'd work with Congress to approve $500 million over five years to combat rainforest deforestation through Brazil's Amazon Fund program. "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 Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate. The forum included leaders of Canada, Mexico, Germany, Egypt, Australia and the European Commission, as well as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. The announcements came just a day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an all-out assault on the heart of Biden's domestic climate agenda — a sign of the divisions at home that continue to bedevil the United States' efforts lead the world in combating the planet's warming. McCarthy proposed legislation Wednesday that would strip billions of dollars of domestic clean energy incentives in return for raising the US borrowing limits to avoid an economically crippling debt default. — Agencies
