Biden Wants $3 Billion of U.S. Climate Finance For Adaptation

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden wants $3 billion a year of U.S. climate finance to go toward helping vulnerable nations adapt to rising seas, droughts and other consequences of global warming. 

Biden’s pledge -- set to be outlined before other heads of state at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday -- is meant to be another demonstration of renewed U.S. commitment to countering climate change. It is one of several actions Biden is touting as he aims to restore U.S. credibility on climate, which was damaged by former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

The planned adaptation funding was described in a White House fact sheet and would require congressional approval. It is part of the $11.4 billion the president has already promised to provide for climate finance each year by 2024. Yet Biden is for the first time putting a price tag on the adaptation effort, which is critical to island nations and other vulnerable countries.

Biden is also set to lay out a long-term strategy for the U.S. to fulfill its pledge to at least halve greenhouse gas releases by the end of the decade and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. Though there are multiple paths to reach those goals, the White House says they all build on the same foundation of rapidly electrifying cars and buildings while shifting to zero-emission fuels to supply their power. 

Boosting efficiency, paring methane and other greenhouse gases, and ramping efforts to strip carbon dioxide from the atmosphere also are critical, the White House says in the blueprint being released Monday. 

Many of those goals can be accomplished through federal regulations, state policies and separate moves by the private sector. Biden is still working to get congressional approval of measures to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles and green infrastructure -- which are also key to unlocking big carbon cuts.

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