In the last week, U.S President Barack Obama made two major announcements on climate change that provided much-needed momentum for global climate-change negotiations in 2015.
The White House announced that President Obama will pledge $3 billion to the U.N.’s Green Climate Fund just days after the joint announcement by Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping that the U.S. and China will pursue new emissions reduction goals.
Grist explains "The Green Climate Fund is intended to provide assistance for developing nations in mitigating their carbon emissions and preparing for the effects of climate change like rising sea levels. It has thus far been severely underfunded.”
After some developed nations made pledges at the U.N. Climate Summit back in September, it was absolutely time for the U.S. to step up, and step up they have.
Now a pledge doesn’t mean the money will simply materialise. The U.S congress are who appropriates money (and in it’s current majority Republican state, any money to fund ‘green’ or ‘climate’ issues is unlikely).
However, environmental groups are cheering for the news nonetheless, because Obama is making a statement that combatting climate change is the central priority of his second term, injecting momentum into the climate movement worldwide in the lead up to Paris in 2015.
Announcements such as the U.S.-China agreement and the pledge of $3 billion to the green climate fund for developing countries, will hopefully press other polluting nations to make similar commitments. Or, at least it will make it more politically uncomfortable for allies of the U.S. to continue with business as usual.
There are already signs that it's succeeding, and even having an impact on the world's most powerful climate change deniers.
Well, not on Tony Abbott just yet, but his best bud Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper broke his usual stance on climate change at the G-20 talks in Australia and announced Canada’s commitment to the Green Climate Fund too.
The U.S. commitment to fighting climate change helps tip the scale, and is a huge boost to the global climate negotiations in the very near future.