The US in the midst of climate catastrophes: hedging the world to resolving the problem of carbon emissions and climate change in the developing world
President Joe Biden arrives Friday at the UN’s COP27 summit in Egypt with a climate change victory in-hand: a massive US law passed this year that experts have told CNN will go far to help transition the country to renewable energy.
The Inflation Reduction Act contained $370 billion for climate and clean energy tax credits and programs, which was the largest investment in the country’s history, and is a notable statement that the US is back in the clean-energy race.
The US has resisted the creation of a fund for developing countries that are most impacted by climate catastrophes, despite the fact they have little or no hands in creating the problem. The US has so far refused to provide money for the effort, though John Kerry is committed to talking about a potential fund at the conference in Poland later this year.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reported in February that in 2020, the nations raised $83.3 billion toward the goal.
“We would like, as Democrats, to get a lot of support for the international Green Fund or other means of providing support to transitioning economies into this bill,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. “The obstacle is Republican opposition, and the Republican opposition is driven by the fossil fuel industry.”
“The politics in Washington is always challenging on any appropriations bill,” Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland told CNN. “I hope the House is controlled by Democrats, but it’s still going to be challenging to make funds available – we recognize that.”
While a new budget bill can pass before a new Congress takes control in January it’s unclear how the new Congress will affect US climate finance.
Kerry told reporters before the summit that “it is imperative for the developed world to help the developing world to deal with the impacts of climate.”
Even if the US is able to walk the talk this year on its domestic climate goals, it will still face questions about whether it can actually meet its global finance commitments, experts said.
What will the world do about carbon credits? Developing countries and the private sector should do more to support climate action in the United States, Canada and the UK
“It’s not just about the U.S. and other developed nations reducing emissions. It’s also about what the U.S. does for developing countries to help them along,” said Barry Rabe, Professor of Environmental Policy at University of Michigan. “It becomes a huge challenge for Biden to explain how [the IRA legislation] will benefit other countries.”
One way the US might be able to meet its goals is by leveraging the buying power of the private sector. On Wednesday, Kerry announced a controversial plan to raise cash for climate action by selling carbon credits to companies wishing to offset their polluting emissions.
The way in which carbon credits will be used to finance the plan was criticized because it will allow companies to pay someone else to cut their emissions.
Kerry told CNN that it is one of the few ways that we have to fund the global clean energy transition.
“We desperately need money,” Kerry told CNN. It’s not easy with no government prepared to put trillions into this on an annual basis.
Even though developed nations have shirked their climate finance commitments for years, the scale of need is growing. The British, Canadian and German report that developed countries should increase their financial commitments even more after the year 2025, with the private sector taking on a larger role.
A recent report from the governments of Canada, Germany, and the UK released ahead of COP27 found that overall, the world’s 39 richest countries are failing to meet the annual $100-billion pledge they announced in 2009. But the report noted that there has been some progress, and they are expected to meet it by next year.
The president of COP26 believes that developed countries will stay on track to deliver $100 billion in ten years.
But Sharma and other climate officials acknowledged a lack of trust from developing nations about whether developed nations would indeed meet their commitments given the years of delay.
It is the case that developed countries and indeed the global financial system have to do more and faster to support developing nations. It’s all about rebuilding and retaining trust in the system.
The question is, how will the other global powers, including China and Russia, respond? It’s a good bet Biden discussed these ideas last week during the state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, who already has expressed his support for Africa’s full integration into the G20. He said in a speech last month that he wanted to change France’s sometimes tense relations with its African former colonies.
Over the last decade, the continent’s geopolitical profile has grown to be seen as a vital region, with the fastest growing population in the world. A quarter of the Earth’s projected 9.5 billion people will be in Africa, up from 10% of the global population in 1950.
Ahead of the summit, the White House said it would invest $55 billion in Africa over the next three years as well as name a special envoy to focus on the issues.
China’s trade with Africa was more than $250 billion last year. US trade with Africa is only a fraction of that, at only about $64 billion. And warmongering Russia is now the continent’s largest arms dealer,with major influence in many African countries. The repercussions of these ties on American interests are real. One case in point, Africa’s strong military relations with Russia have muted the continent’s criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, to the dismay of the US and much of the world.
The then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was seen by some African diplomats as being more concerned with warning against investments and loans from China, which has poured $700 billion in infrastructure loans across the continent, than engaging with African policymakers on shared aims.
There’s been a concerted pivot in tone from U.S. diplomats this year, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. A new Africa strategy document released in the summer emphasized Africa’s agency and partnership. Statements by Biden administration officials have emphasized the U.S.’ intent is to listen, not lecture countries.
A new role of special representative for Africa is being created by the White House and it will be filled by Johnnie Carson, a long-time foreign service officer.
Many African countries want to renewed and expand the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) when it expires in ten years. The act allows access to the U.S. market under conditions, and has become an important part of economic growth in countries like Ethiopia. The U.S. blocked the East African country’s access to the AGOA this year following the Ethiopian government’s civil war with the northern Tigray region. During the summit, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia will hold talks with Blinken about access to U.S. markets.
In many briefings, U.S officials said that the administration would seek new trade opportunities and closer cooperation in order to fight terrorism, but offered little else about what signature aims they were hoping for. There is no guarantee that any major policy emerges from the summit.
Joyce M. Davis is the CEO and president of the World Affairs Council in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She is a veteran journalist and author who has lived and worked around the globe, working for National Public Radio, Knight Ridder Newspapers in Washington, DC, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague. The opinions she gives are her own. CNN has more opinion.
These relationships took a long time to get going. It was more than a decade ago that they were made. American leaders have allowed the global powers to gain important footholds on the continent that could threaten our own interests around the world. President Joe Biden knows that it was a mistake, and he’s prepared to correct it.
“The United States is all in on Africa’s future,” Mr. Biden declared in an address to the delegations of 49 nations attending the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Adapting a line he often uses to pitch domestic priorities, the president added, “Together, we want to build a future of opportunity where no one, no one, is left behind.”
The visiting African leaders and their spouses were feted by Mr. Biden at a White House dinner on Wednesday night as well as at the World Cup semifinal match between Portugal and France, where he honored the first Africa nation to make the semifinals.
“I know you’re saying to yourselves, ‘Make it short, Biden, there’s a semifinal game coming up,’” he joked as he opened his speech just 13 minutes before game time. (Morocco fell to France, 2-0.)
The president unveiled a series of initiatives, including an agreement meant to encourage the formation of a continentwide free-trade zone that has stalled over the last few years. He vowed to help African countries do more to transition to clean energy and plug into the digital economy, a contrast to China, which has focused much of its investment in Africa on building roads, bridges, airports and other physical infrastructure.
Mr. Biden said the goal was not to create political obligation or foster dependence, but topur shared success, which he said characterized his approach. He believes that when Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds. The whole world succeeds as well.
The Biden administration has tried to shift the focus away from its efforts this week to contend with China in economic and trade cooperation with Africa.
Mr. Biden was going to go back to the African Union summit in Washington on Thursday, where he would speak about the strategic vision for the continent. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris will close the gathering with a discussion of food security.
Mr. Biden was able to start his pitch for Africa’s leaders by reminding them that the U.S. gave 231 million vaccines to 49 African countries.
The war in Ukraine showed the scale of American priorities. A mistake by Mr. Biden in his speech underscored the context. The president overstated the investment in the digital economy initiative for Africa by $350 million, according to the official White House transcript. The White House requested another $37 million from the Congress to aid the war in Ukraine, while the Biden administration has committed $68 billion.
Some analysts wondered whether the roster of projects ticked off by the president and his aides this week would be more effective than a single broad initiative like those introduced by Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama.
“When I hear a laundry list, a long list of investments, that’s just showing what the U.S. is doing,” said Aubrey Hruby of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. I don’t know if it works out well. It might have been simpler with Power Africa. It drew on the power of the podium.”
A partnership with Microsoft is a part of the digital economy project. “American big tech recognizes that the demographic future of this world is African,” Ms. Hruby said. “A million Africans turn 18 every month. This is the future.”
The summit is always influenced by China, as always. Mr. Biden’s announcement of $800 million in new contracts for some of the biggest names in technology, such asCisco and Cybastion, was a counterpoint to the dominance of Chinese companies in Africa.
The Biden administration supports an initiative to use minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Africa to make batteries for electric vehicles in other countries. That deal meets the African goal of keeping supply chains for one of the world’s hottest new businesses on the continent.
It also meets an American strategic objective, countering worries in Washington that China is obtaining a stranglehold on rare minerals in countries like Congo.
Indications for a higher gear in the United States approach to the 2019 high-energy summit on physics and physics, by Xiong-Mills
“Look, any time an administration chooses not to put as much energy or emphasis into a place, it obviously has some ramifications,” he told reporters this week. But “we believe that we are not coming into this summit from a standing start. We’re coming into this summit with a head of steam around a set of issues that this summit, I think, is going to kick into a higher gear.”