By Megan Rowling
BARCELONA, Jan 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United
States will produce a plan to end international financing for
fossil fuel projects, its special climate envoy John Kerry said
Wednesday, as senior British and U.N. officials urged donor
nations to meet a flagship climate finance promise.
Speaking at an online panel organised by the World Economic
Forum, Kerry said the new administration of U.S. President Joe
Biden would draft a plan for U.S. climate finance, without
giving further details.
He noted the United States had spent $265 billion cleaning
up three major hurricanes that hit the country in 2017, while
another storm in 2020 racked up a bill of $55 billion.
Yet "in stark contrast, we don't fully fund" a commitment by
wealthy governments, enshrined in the Paris Agreement, to raise
$100 billion a year globally to help poor, vulnerable nations
adopt clean energy and adapt to extreme weather and rising seas,
he said.
Earlier in the week, Kerry told an international climate
adaptation summit the U.S would "make good" on its climate
finance promise, without specifying when or how.
Under climate-change sceptic Donald Trump, the United States
failed to deliver two-thirds of a $3-billion promise to the
Green Climate Fund, set up under U.N. climate talks to help
developing countries tackle global warming.
Alok Sharma, Britain's president for the COP26 U.N. climate
conference in November and a former business minister, told the
WEF event the $100 billion promise was "absolutely totemic".
"It's a matter of trust. We donor countries have to deliver
on that," he said, noting it was not just about government
funding but also raising private money to tackle climate change.
In December, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres warned rich nations
were "lagging badly" on the $100-billion-a-year commitment, due
to kick in from 2020 onwards, after a report showed it would
likely be missed as donor finances were strained by the COVID-19
pandemic.
Welcoming the U.S. announcement that it aims to end overseas
funding for fossil fuel projects, green group Friends of the
Earth noted that in the past five years the U.S. International
Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and its predecessor, the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation, had approved almost $4
billion for such projects.
In addition, the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) approved
over $5 billion for fossil fuel projects abroad in the last two
years, it said.
Both have backed fossil fuel projects all over the world,
including in Argentina and Mozambique, Friends of the Earth
added.
"It is high time that EXIM, DFC and the rest of the U.S
government stop destroying local communities and the environment
by propping up fossil fuel projects abroad," said Kate
DeAngelis, the group's international finance programme manager.
"We look forward to an immediate end to this dirty
financing," she said in a statement.
In December, the British government also promised to stop
further state support for oil, gas or coal projects overseas,
including via development aid, export finance and trade
promotion.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed told the
online WEF panel that rich nations needed to show at the COP26
summit they were serious about meeting their $100-billion-a-year
pledge.
"It's not going to get us... to where we want to be" on
climate action, she said. "But it's the handshake that gives
people the trust across that bridge for all of us to do the
things we need to do."
A climate finance "roadmap" from the United States could
help spark concrete steps, she noted.
Countries that have done the most to cause climate change
have not been willing to put in the investments needed for all
to embark on more ambitious climate action together, including
nations that have little financial means to do so, she said.
"There's already been so much damage, and you cannot inflict
more pain on those who are now trying to grow," she added.
(Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Laurie
Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the
charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of
people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.
Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)