Bloomberg to fund UN climate body after Donald Trump leaves Paris | Climate crisis news
Bloomberg pledges financial support to the UN climate body after Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
The UN’s climate change body will receive funding from billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s foundation after President Donald Trump said the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement for the second time.
In a statement on Thursday, Bloomberg said the intervention was aimed at ensuring the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) remained fully funded despite the US suspending its contributions.
“From 2017 to 2020, during a period of federal inaction, cities, states, businesses and the public rose to the challenge of upholding our nation’s commitments — and now we’re ready to do it again,” Bloomberg, who serves as the U.N. Special Envoy for climate ambitions and solutions, says the press release.
The US typically provides 22 percent of the UNFCCC secretariat budget, with the body’s estimated operating costs for 2024-2025. to USD 96.5 million.
After being sworn in on Monday, Trump signed one of his first executive orders withdrawal of the USA from the climate agreement and ending all of the country’s international climate finance obligations.
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, described Trump’s decision as a lost opportunity for US clean energy business, saying it only sends “all the vast wealth to competing economies” while climate-related disasters worsen.
European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra described Trump’s withdrawal as a “truly unfortunate development” for the US and the rest of the world.
Bloomberg’s decision to step in is the second time he has done so to fill the void left by the US federal decoupling.
In 2017, following the Trump administration’s first withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, Bloomberg pledged up to $15 million to support the UNFCCC.
He also launched “Covenant of America”initiative to track and report on US non-federal climate commitments, ensuring that the world can track US progress as if it were still a fully committed party to the Paris Agreement.
Bloomberg sought the Democratic nomination for US President in 2019, but ended his campaign four months later.
