Obama Has Pledged $3 Billion to the UN's Green Climate Fund
CNS News - President Obama has pledged $3 billion to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Green Climate Fund over four years. The first $500 million of that pledged amount was transferred on March 7, 2016. The U.N. serves as depository for the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol; and the UNFCCC secretariat’s headquarters is located in the U.N. complex in the German city of Bonn. UNFCCC’s landmark climate change agreement was negotiated in Paris in 2015.
Many Republican lawmakers also oppose the administration’s domestic and international actions on climate change, including its efforts to circumvent Congress in committing the U.S. to the Paris agreement.
When the administration transferred the first $500 million instalment of the promised $3 billion to the GCF last month, Barrasso questioned how what he called the “handout to foreign bureaucrats” could be justified in the current economic climate.
Challenging a State Department official during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Barrasso also noted that Congress had not authorized or appropriated any funding for the GCF, and charged that the payment violates legislation which prohibits federal agencies from spending federal funds in advance or in excess of an appropriation.
Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom said in response the department had “reviewed our authorities and made a determination that we can make this payment to the Green Climate Fund.”
Kerry, who has championed the climate change issue for decades, said after the Paris accord was struck that he did not believe Americans would ever elect as president a candidate who did not support the international climate change effort.
“I don’t think they’re going to accept as a genuine leader someone who doesn’t understand the science of climate change and isn’t willing to do something about it,” he said.
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