The administration of US President Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the UN Climate Change Fund.
This is reported by POLITICO with reference to a letter from Rebecca Lawlor, the US representative on the board of the fund. She said that the U.S. board member and his deputy are leaving their positions and will not be replaced by other officials.
The Fund for responding to Loss and Damage was established in 2023 to help the most vulnerable developing countries to climate change in the event of natural disasters.
The creation of the fund was a victory for climate change activists from developing countries, as nearly 200 countries signed the agreement. For decades, island nations have insisted that developed polluting countries invest in helping developing countries recover from climate disasters.
At the 2023 climate conference, the United States pledged $17.5 million to the fund, and the EU – $245 million, including $100 million from Germany.
The decision was the latest step by the Trump administration to withdraw the United States from international agreements. The decision to withdraw from the UN fund was almost immediately condemned by the chairman of the African Negotiating Group, Ali Mohamed. He wrote on the X network:
“At a time when the world needs a concerted effort to combat the effects of climate change, the spirit of multinationalism must remain our guiding light.”
One of Donald Trump's first orders after taking office was to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Three days later, it became known that billionaire Michael Bloomberg intended to financially support the functioning of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to compensate for the lack of US contribution.
EcoPolitics also reported that the Trump administration had canceled the allocation of $4 billion to the world's largest Green Climate Fund, and the US State Department had suspended the global air pollution monitoring program.
