U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Wednesday he thinks rich countries can finally meet their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to help poor nations cope with climate change beginning this year — and will definitely reach that amount in 2023.
That would be at least two years later than the 2020 target set by developed countries at a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 for providing that funding to help developing countries adapt to global warming and mitigate further rises in temperature.
Kerry told an informal U.N. Security Council meeting on “Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace and Security” that President Joe Biden is committed to increasing U.S. funding to developing countries to help with climate change.
Last September, he said, Biden promised to increase annual U.S. climate finance to over $11 billion, quadrupling the funding from the 2009-2017 presidency of Barack Obama, when Biden was vice president.