On Saturday, the administration of Joe Biden pressed China to do more to assist developing countries in combating climate change, encouraging the world’s greatest producer of greenhouse gases to support international climate finance funds that it had previously declined to support.
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen delivered the message during her second day of meetings in Beijing, where she is aiming to foster areas of collaboration between the United States and China.
While China has expressed support for programs to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change, it has declined to contribute to such funds, stating that it, too, is a developing country.
Climate change is a problem shared by China and the United States, according to Ms. Yellen.
Climate finance should be targeted efficiently and effectively, Ms. Yellen said during a meeting with a group of Chinese and international sustainable finance experts on Saturday morning.
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US and China’s Role In Supporting Impoverished Countries
I believe that if China supported existing multilateral climate institutions such as the Green Climate Fund and Climate Investment Funds alongside us and other donor countries, we could have a greater impact than we do now.
Both the US and China are under pressure from developing countries to mobilize more funds for developing countries struggling to close coal plants, develop renewable energy, or cope with the effects of climate change by building sea walls, improving drainage, or developing early warning systems for floods and cyclones.
President Barack Obama gave $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations-led program aimed at supporting impoverished countries, over a four-year period. So far, it has delivered $2 billion of that pledge.
Republicans have repeatedly attempted to block government support for the fund and other climate finance projects, but President Biden has met a portion of the US pledge through discretionary spending within the State Department.
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Source:nytimes.com