President Obama’s Last-Minute $500 Million Donation To Green Climate Fund

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In a move that has all the hallmarks of an Obama-Biden meme, President Barack Obama has transferred $500 million into the Green Climate Fund just a few days before leaving office.

Bound up within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) exists to support poorer nations in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and adjust to climate change. Specifically, according to the GCF’s own mission statement:

The GCF mission is to expand collective human action to respond to climate change.
The Fund aims to mobilize funding at scale to invest in low-emission and climate-resilient development on our home planet.

The last we heard from the Green Climate Fund was back in October of 2016, when it was announced the Fund had approved $745 million in funding approvals for 10 separate projects, which together will have a total value of $2.6 billion, while helping 27 separate countries.

“The approval of this amount is an impressive accomplishment for the Fund,” said Mr. Zaheer Fakir, GCF Board’s developing country Co-Chair. “With these funding approvals, we have committed over USD 1 billion in GCF resources this year to support low-emission and climate-resilient development in developing countries.”

However, the United States’ continued support of the Green Climate Fund is severely in doubt, with President-elect Donald Trump having promised during his campaign to cancel US payments to the Fund promised by President Obama. Specifically, the United States under President Obama had promised to commit $3 billion in donations to the GCF.

The United States had already transferred $500 million in cash to the Fund, but with just days before he has to vacate the premises for Donald Trump, and in a move that has all the classic hallmarks of an Obama-Biden meme, President Barack Obama announced the transfer of a further $500 million to the Fund this week.

“The Green Climate Fund is a critical tool that helps catalyse billions on dollar in public and private investment in countries dealing not only with the challenges of climate change but the immense economic opportunities that are embedded in the transition to a lower carbon economy,” said Department spokesman John Kirby.

“The United States is pleased to have played a leading role in the establishment of the GCF and we are also please to be making this significant grant.”


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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