Joe Biden attend the closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly and now he is expected to announce some “good news” on addressing a shortfall in a $100bn global climate fund, Prensa Latina reports.
For Joe Biden, the Tuesday speech to the United Nations General Assembly became the first one. The US president was represented by climate envoy John Kerry at the meeting convened by the United Kingdom and UNSG Antonio Guterres.
Ahead of the Paris agreement in 2015, the rich nations pledged to mobilise $100bn a year from 2020 to support poorer countries with climate adaptation, but there is currently a shortfall of about $20bn.
“We did hear from the US representative in the room that … some good news was imminent,” the UN official said.
Although there were no details, the US official expressed hope that Washington intends to step up to support the mobilisation of the $100 billion.
The UK’s Prime Minister, a co-host the UN meeting, said that ‘everyone nods’ and the rich countries all agree that ‘something must be done’. Boris Johnson added that some of the industrialised countries like Denmark and Sweden show faint signs of progress. Both nations have announced they would allocate 50 percent or more of their climate financing for adaptation in the developing world, one of the key UN goals.
“Let’s see what the president of the United States has to say tomorrow,” the British PM added.
The Paris agreement calls for net-zero emissions by 2050, with strong reductions by 2030, to meet the 1.5C goal.
