Biden's funding pledge for developing countries on climate change far from enough: environmentalists

BEIJING - US President Joe Biden's pledge of $5.7 billion annually by 2024 for developing nations to combat climate change "falls far short of what the United States should be spending," Bloomberg quoted environmental advocates as saying in a recent report.

The figure is far less than the funds ranging from $8 billion to $800 billion through 2030, which is urged by environmental activists.

"This is insufficient to address the needs described by vulnerable countries today, and nowhere near the balance with mitigation finance called for in the Paris Agreement," Joe Thwaites, an associate with the Sustainable Finance Center of World Resources Institute, was quoted as saying.

Former US President Barack Obama once pledged to contribute $3 billion to the United Nations Green Climate Fund. Yet the United States has been far from meeting the promise. Some environmentalists expected Biden to rectify the shortage by spending more, according to the report.