President Joe Biden is pledging $1 billion in taxpayer money to a United Nations climate fund that funnels millions of dollars to China, the world's largest emitter of carbon and second-largest economy.
Biden during a Thursday morning speech announced the contribution to the United Nations' Green Climate Fund, saying the money will support "developing countries in taking stronger climate action." Because the United Nations still classifies China, despite its massive economy, as a developing country, the communist nation receives significant Green Climate Fund money. The fund in November 2019 pledged $100 million to create a "Green Development Fund" in Shandong, China's second most populated province. The Green Climate Fund disbursed $28 million to its Chinese partner in September 2022, and tens of millions of dollars are still poised to go out to the project, which will remain active through April 2042.
Biden has long stressed the need to help developing countries fight climate change, an effort the Democrat promised he would fund to the tune of $11 billion a year. Biden's decision to pursue that effort through international organizations, however, is sure to bring controversy. Many of those organizations, such as the United Nations, still consider China a developing country, making the communist nation eligible for international climate investment. In November, for example, the Biden administration agreed to establish an international "climate justice" fund that would pay climate reparations to developing nations. But China did not agree to pay into the fund, and its status as a developing nation left the administration scrambling to ensure "that China would not be eligible to receive money from it," according to the New York Times.
Beyond its economic status, China is by far the world's number-one carbon emitter. The communist nation's greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 "exceeded those of the U.S. and other developed nations combined." That year saw China pledge to show "the highest possible ambition" in fighting climate change, but two years later, in 2021, China's coal production surged to record highs.
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