Kamala Harris announces at COP28 conference, America will give 3 billion dollars to Green Climate Fund

Vice President Kamala Harris told the United Nations’ COP28 conference on Saturday that the United States will contribute $3 billion to the global climate fund — its first pledge since 2014. “Today, we are demonstrating through action how the world can and should deal with this crisis,” Harris said at the climate summit in Dubai. The new money, which must be approved by the US Congress, will go to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was created in 2010.

The last US contribution to the fund for developing countries was made under then-President Barack Obama, who contributed $3 billion in 2014. US President Joe Biden sent Harris to COP28 in his place. The world’s largest climate fund makes grants and loans for adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries, such as solar panels in Pakistan or flood management in Haiti. Before the US announcement, $13.5 billion had been pledged to the GCF.

The failure of wealthy countries to meet financial pledges to help developing countries tackle climate change has fueled tensions and mistrust in climate talks. Developing countries least responsible for climate change are seeking support from rich polluting countries to deal with the increasingly brutal and costly consequences of extreme weather and in their transition to cleaner energy sources. The GCF plays a role in a separate promise by rich countries to supply $100 billion of climate financing annually to poorer countries. But that pledge was likely to be fulfilled two years late, in 2022.