Outgoing United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday transferred $500 million (approximately Rs 3,326 crore) to the Green Climate Fund, his second such sanctioned installment, The Guardian reported. The US had pledged a $3-billion (around Rs 20,000-crore) contribution to the fund, which was set up in 2010 to help developing countries adopt the historic Paris climate deal.
“The Green Climate Fund is a critical tool that helps catalyse billions of dollars in public and private investment in countries dealing not only with the challenges of climate change, but the immense economic opportunities that are embedded in the transition to a lower carbon economy,” said US State Department spokesperson John Kirby, according to Malta Today.
So far, the US has transferred $1 billion (Rs 6,600 crore) and needs to pay $2 billion (Rs 13,300 crore approximately) more in installments. Obama’s move is significant as Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as the president on Friday, is expected to stop making further payments to the fund.
On a number of occasions, Trump has been vocal about his opposition to the Paris deal. More than a 100 organisations and thousands of people had urged Obama to make the full payment before his term as president ended. “Tens of thousands of people around the world had called on President Obama to step up before Trump takes the keys of our government and tries to reverse decades of climate progress,” Tamar Lawrence-Samuel of Corporate Accountability International, which had launched a campaign, told The Guardian.
Under the Paris agreement, all signatory countries are required to keep global warming within 2°C of pre-industrial levels.
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