There’s a fundamental problem with how rich countries are paying for climate damages

During his four years in office, former US president Donald Trump cut off almost all international financing for global climate efforts. On April 22, the Biden administration reversed this policy, announcing the US will double its climate contributions to $5.6 billion annually by 2024. The pool of money includes streams from federal agencies like the US Development Finance Corporation and contributions to the UN-managed Green Climate Fund that aim to help poor countries adopt clean energy and adapt to climate change impacts.

The number left many analysts underwhelmed. Biden’s plan inches the US closer to taking responsibility for its historic emissions, but has yet to meet the mark. During the 2015 Paris climate summit, countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) agreed to raise at least $100 billion annually by 2020. Only about $80 billion has been raised so far, and much of that comes with expensive strings attached. An Oct. 2020 Oxfam report concluded that developing countries ultimately pocketed only $25 billion out of $60 billion delivered to them as climate finance between 2017-18, after deducting loan repayments and interest.

Climate finance is stingy and inequitable

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