US Will Not Pledge Any Climate Funding For Poor Countries At Summit; $100 B Promised, $1 B Delivered

[hatrack]

Barack Obama will not be pledging any cash to a near-empty fund for poor countries at a United Nations summit on climate change next week, the UN special climate change envoy said on Friday.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has challenged the 125 world leaders attending the 23 September summit to make “bold pledges” to the fund, intended to help poor countries cope with climate change. The UN has been pressing rich countries to come up with pledges of between $10bn and $15bn.

“We are putting a lot of pressure for them to do it at the summit on the 23rd,” the UN envoy and former Irish president, Mary Robinson, told the Guardian on the sidelines of a US Agency for International Development meeting. But she added: “I know the United States is not going to commit because I’ve asked.”

Obama put climate change at the top of his second term agenda, and the administration unveiled a host of new green measures in the run-up to next week’s meeting, including an initiative to cut the extremely potent greenhouse gas used as a coolant in refrigerators and air conditioners. Obama’s speech to the summit will showcase those US actions, such as proposed new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants.

EDIT

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/20/us-climate-change-aid-poor-nations-un-summit

[yeoman6987]

1. Can we afford to pay without borrowing?

I don't think so. We have many times said were on our way to bankruptcy. It would be great to help out, but we need to get our financial situation settled first.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Our "financial situation" will be settled when we finally...

...force the uber-wealthy and these so-called corporate monolithic "people" to pay up their fair fucking share!

We could have that hundred billion for drowning island/coastal nations ready to go in under a month if our government actually functioned as an instrument of hope and justice for the common man.

Duh.

[yeoman6987]

4. That will help

But not completely help. 17 trillion and counting is a ton of money.

[newfie11]

2. if we stopped spending billions in wars maybe we could actually help countries

but then again we must feed the MIC and we haven't done such a great job on protecting the enviroment here at home.

[Glassunion]

5. To be fair. We do have a war to save up for.

Bombing little brown people 1/2 a world away is a higher priority.