Dubai, United Arab Emirates- Vice President Kamala Harris today announced the US will invest an additional $3 billion to the United Nations’ (UN) Green Climate fund.
The US had previously invested $2 billion into the fund.
Vice President Harris’ announcement came during the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 28).
Shortly thereafter, conservative Congress-members criticized the Biden administration for the announcement.
UN institution’s ambivalence toward Hamas’ attacks against Israel on October 7 and their subsequent opposition to Israeli self-defense efforts have also been widely criticized.
US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart explained Biden is pledging US financial support without having the authority to do so, given Congress has the power to make appropriations.
Representative Diaz-Balart stated he is “appalled that the Biden Administration will pledge billions more of taxpayer dollars, money that Congress has not even provided” to the Green Climate Fund.
The US is the top country financing the Green Climate Fund, having outspent the other 43 states who are supporting the initiative.
Remarkably, China, the world’s largest polluter, has not pledged a single dollar of support to the Green Climate Fund. What’s more, the Green Climate Fund has invested $100 million into clean energy projects in China.
Biden recently struck a controversial informal deal with China’s Xi Jinping to support China’s transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources.
Other countries, such as Iran and Afghanistan, have received over $17 million in combined support from the fund.
Balart believes the fund is not helping combat climate change and that US taxpayer dollars could be better spent elsewhere. The Green Climate Fund is a “bloated, mismanaged, and ineffective slush fund that will do nothing to change the temperature of the planet,” said Balart.
