Bloomberg Pledges $5.5 Million for Climate Action
Bloomberg Philanthropies has announced that Michael R. Bloomberg, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Climate Action, will contribute $5.5 million in support of the UN Climate Change Secretariat.
Announced on Earth Day, the pledge fills a funding shortfall created by the Trump administration's decision — for the second consecutive year — not to fully fund annual commitments to the secretariat made by the Obama administration under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Among other things, the funding will help underwrite the operational costs of the secretariat's headquarters in Bonn, Germany, as well as the secretary-general's climate strategy and efforts to ensure progress on international carbon reduction goals.
Although the Obama administration committed a total of $15 million to the secretariat for the two-year 2018-19 funding cycle, the U.S. government transferred only $2.5 million in 2018 and is expected to contribute the same amount this year. After the Trump administration pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, Bloomberg pledged to make up $15 million in funding from Washington the secretariat stood to lose. With the $4.5 million contributed in 2018, the latest pledge boosts Bloomberg's commitment to the secretariat to $10 million...