The latest pledge would be additional to another $2 billion previously delivered by the US…reports Asian Lite News
The United States has pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, Vice President Kamala Harris said in Dubai at the UN COP28 climate summit.
The fund, with more than $20 billion in pledges, is the largest international fund dedicated to supporting climate action in developing countries.
The latest pledge would be additional to another $2 billion previously delivered by the US.
Sources said the pledge was subject to the availability of funds. The politically divided U.S. Congress needs to authorize the funding. Harris announced the pledge in her address to the summit.
“Today I am also proud to announce a new $3 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund which helps developing countries invest in resilience, clean energy, and nature-based solutions,” she said.
The fund’s facilitators said in October that the current second round of replenishments had brought in about $9.3 billion in pledges to fund projects in climate-vulnerable counties between 2024 and 2027.
Even so, pledges so far represent a fraction of roughly $250 billion that developing countries would need every year by 2030 just to adapt to a warmer world, according to the United Nations. In addition to supporting climate adaptation, the fund also finances projects to help countries shift to clean energy.
Harris, who was representing the US at COP28 in place of President Joe Biden, was part of a US delegation that also includes climate envoy John Kerry and dozens of senior administration officials and cabinet members.
“It was important for both the president and vice president to ensure that a leader from the United States was at COP,” an official said, adding that Harris wanted to “make sure we are telling the world the story of progress that we have made in the US.”
Meanwhile, physicians, activists and country representatives at this year’s COP28 U.N. climate summit in Dubai have called for greater global efforts to protect people from the increasing health and safety risks posed by climate change.
With global temperatures set to continue climbing for decades, experts say countries will need to boost funding for healthcare as heatwaves become more dangerous and diseases like malaria and cholera spread.
Climate-related impacts “have become one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century”, COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber said in a statement.
Late on Saturday, 123 of the nearly 200 countries gathered at COP28 signed a declaration acknowledging their responsibility to keep people safe. The declaration made no mention of fossil fuels, the main source of climate-warming emissions.
Thanks to climate change, cases of malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress are already on the rise in some regions.
A small group of physicians in white coats and climate activists held a small demonstration within the COP28 compound to raise awareness of the issue on Sunday.
“We are in a lot of trouble,” said Joseph Vipond, an emergency physician from Alberta, Canada. He recalled the case of a child dying from an asthma attack made worse by smoke inhalation from Western Canada’s record wildfires this year. “This is having real world impacts.”
Climate change is also increasing the frequency of dangerous storms and more erratic rainfall.
In September Storm Daniel killed more than 11,000 people in Libya, and last year’s massive flooding in Pakistan fueled a 400% increase in malaria cases across the country, according to the World Health Organization.
Governments and philanthropic bodies are expected later on Sunday to announce new financing for climate-related health issues.
The World Bank on Sunday launched a new Climate and Health program to explore possible interventions and public health solutions for developing countries.
Ten of the world’s top development banks including the World Bank also said on Sunday they would work together to help countries track climate impacts, including public health risks, and to identify investment opportunities and priorities.
In a statement, the banks said the window of opportunity to secure a liveable planet was “rapidly closing”.
Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates said scientists were working on new treatments for and prevention of mosquito-spread malaria as the rise in temperatures creates more hospitable habitat for the insects to breed.
“We have new tools at the lab level that decimate mosquito populations,” said Gates, whose foundation supports public health research and projects for the developing world.
“These new innovations give us a chance, at a reasonable cost, to make progress.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also spoke on Sunday at COP28, urging reform to the world’s insurance system as another key requirement to keep people safe.
“Right now insurance companies are pulling out of so many places, they’re not insuring homes, they’re not insuring businesses,” Clinton said, addressing a panel on women and climate resiliency