How Trump’s USAID shutdown threatens the world’s climate goals

As part of a widespread effort to overcome Congress and reduce government spending unilaterally, the Trump administration closed operations at the United States Agency for International Development, or the independent federal body that provides humanitarian aid and financing economic development worldwide. On his first day in his post, President Trump issued an executive order that stops funding the US Agency for International Development, and later issued an order for almost all financing recipients, from soup kitchens in Sudan to the Global Human Mercy Group.

Since then, the new “Ministry of Governmental efficiency” has closed from Elon Musk the agency’s website, closed employees from their email accounts, and closed the agency’s office in Washington.

“The American Agency for International Development is a criminal organization”, Tweet Musk on Sunday. “It is time to die.” (The agency has been recorded in federal law, and the court’s challenges may likely argue that Musk actions are illegal.)

While Trump’s sudden criticism of the US International Development Agency has greatly focused on global public health projects that have long enjoyed support for the two parties, the effort also threatens billions of dollars intended to combat climate change. Climate -related financing at the United States Agency for International Development helps low -income countries to build renewable energy and adapt to increased natural disasters, as well as maintain carbon basins and sensitive ecosystems. During the Biden Administration, the US Agency for International Development has accelerated its climate -focused efforts as part of A new ambitious initiative It was supposed to continue at the end of the contract. It seems that this effort has now reached a sudden end, as contractors at the United States Agency for International Development are preparing all over the world Abandoning critical projects and removing employees.

Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, who was responsible for the US Agency for International Development as Acting Director, said that the sudden closure of Musk “is not related to getting rid of foreign aid.” But even if the US Agency for International Development ultimately resumes operations to provide emergency humanitarian assistance such as supporting famine and protecting HIV, it is possible that the agency will end all its climate -related business under the Trump administration. The result will be a blow to the prominent climate agreement in Paris with the same importance as Trump’s official withdrawal of the United States from the international agreement. By returning the billions of dollars that Congress has already committed to combating global warming, the United States is preparing to obstruct climate progress beyond its borders.

“This takes a flame to the development programs that the American people have paid against,” Jillian Caldwell, who held the position of chief climate employee at the United States Agency for International Development during the era of former President Biden. “Several obligations under the Paris Agreement relate to financing, and this is at great danger.”

The United States spends less than 1 percent of its federal budget on external aid, but this still makes the country the largest donor to help in the world to a large extent. The United States Agency for International Development distributes between 40 and 60 billion dollars annually – nearly a quarter of all global humanitarian aid. While in recent years, the largest shares in this aid went to Ukraine, Israel and Afghanistan, and the agency distributes billions of dollars to Latin America, sub -Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, as it helps in enhancing food security, health, sanitation, and educational efforts.

In 2022, CaldWell led the launch of a new comprehensive “climate strategy” that sought to re -set up the United States Agency for International Development over the next decade for climate shocks. The first part of this initiative was a review of each country separately of the current aid flows in standard areas such as food and sanitation. The US Agency’s International Development Agency offices all over the world have started amending their operations to ensure that the projects that have been funded will stop as temperatures continue to rise. For example, the agency will ensure that water and sanitation systems may deal with larger floods, or plan to pollinate against diseases that may spread faster in warm weather. This effort was particularly important in sectors such as agriculture, which is both heavy emissions and very weak with weather shocks that come with small small transformations.

“You will get a lot of demands for humanitarian help when you get harsh weather events,” she said. “The point was to make sure that every dollar we spend is reasonable given the world in which we live today.”

In addition to this review, the agency also increased its direct spending on renewable energy, conservation, and adaptation to the climate. The agency added dozens of new countries to the climate aid portfolio under Biden, and expanded in Southeast Asia and West Africa. The United States Agency for International Development had a much greater impact on the climate battle than its raw spending, which reached a total of about $ 600 million on climate efforts in 2023. This is because the agency’s support mobilized billions of dollars from the private sector, as it attracted investment from renewable energy developers and companies Insurance that provides dehydration and flood coverage to weak areas abroad.

The renewed energy efforts of the American Agency for International Development may be the most flexible in the Trump attack, as it does not depend on the agency’s continuous participation. The American Agency for International Development has helped design many countries in the design and auctions of renewable energy, as private companies provide the right to build new energy facilities at low prices. These auctions provide countries’ money and make it easier for them to attract private capital. In the Philippines, Two auctions sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development It has achieved approximately $ 7 billion in investment to build 5.4 GB of solar energy and wind energy, enough to operate millions of homes – without more academic support.

Agency Spending landscapes Less safe. This financing is prohibited to develop on sensitive natural environments such as rainforests by pushing the residents close to searching for ways to live other than cutting trees and grazing that can launch huge emissions of carbon stored in the forests. If the US Agency for International Development collapses, this aid will dry out, endangered millions of climate -friendly lands.

The largest part of the climate spending at the American Agency for International Development is directed to disaster flexibility, which does not attract much investment from banks and private companies, making government support very important. In the case of Zimbabwe, for example, the agency finances dozens of projects per year that aims to make farmers in the country more flexible in drought and floods. (This is in addition to public health and AIDS relief provided to the country, which together represents the majority of the United States Agency for International Development.)

One of the largest disaster relief programs in Zimbabwe, a broad -base initiative for Help farmers with small holdersThe water stabilizes for tens of thousands of families by helping them build small systems of rain and restore the deteriorating soil. The US Agency for International Development has funded the project to about 12 million dollars annually since 2020, and the program is scheduled to continue over the next three years.

The Minister of Climate and Environment in Zimbabwe, Washington Chakata, said that the closure of the US Agency for International Development will make almost impossible for the country to meet its obligations to the Paris Agreement. The country promised not only to develop renewable energy but also to spend huge sums of money to protect droughts and floods. A adaptation plan has developed at the country level on the hypothesis that future financing will be provided – and is presented in a large part of it countries responsible for most of the carbon emissions historically, such as the United States, like the United States

“With limited resources and lowering, as a result of the withdrawal of financing, meeting our compliance will be an arduous task,” said Catsa to Grist. “The financial gap will witness that the developing countries will be to live with the minimum resources and also to pressure from local sources.”

Sometimes, the US Agency for International Development has faced criticism for ineffective spending and unclear results – including spending on the previous climate. The Agency’s Inspector General issued a report last summer criticizing the previous climate initiatives of the United States Agency for International Development for the presence of mysterious data, saying that “the weaknesses of the agency’s operations to grant funds, performance management and communicate climate change information may hinder successful implementation.”

The Inspector General report also launched the US Climate Development Agency for the question. In another Last year’s reportThe agency said that its new clean energy investments in Pakistan will reduce about 55 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, equivalent to about 10 million cars from the road. In Brazil, the agency said it has maintained about 118 million acres of forest lands, which will achieve millions of tons of carbon. The Inspector General said that the results of such “are very vulnerable to lack of accuracy”, because the results of emissions have not yet occurred.

Some experts also argue that the agency’s humanitarian aid programs do not focus enough to reduce the long -term risk. Food security specialists who spoke to GRIT through a 2023 Famine in Somalia The United States Agency for International Development said that the United States Agency for International Development provided emergency food assistance in the country, as shepherds lost their income, but did not provide sufficient financing to help these sponsors adapt to future drought. Caldwell, the former US Climate Officer of the International Development Agency, said that the agency has reduced long -term risks by trying to reduce emissions in the delivery of emergency aid and ensure that the new infrastructure can survive in future disasters.

While the Trump administration tried to get rid of climate aid in each round of annual budget negotiations, Some Republicans resisted in the Senate The aid flows keep more or less. This time, there is no guarantee that Republicans in Congress will show the same resistance to Trump’s demands – nor a guarantee that the administration will comply with the laws that require this spending the money allocated by Congress. If Musk, who made Trump made a private employee to conduct a vision of the Ministry of Governmental efficiency, overcomes the challenges of the court and succeeds in removing the United States Agency for International Development and closing the agency’s model operations, it will take a new management and years of work to restore the flow of climate aid, assuming Congress voted for its recovery as well.

Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, but the United States is still a member of the broader climate conference of the United Nations, and it only has Congress has the authority to withdraw it from that agreement. The original framework of the United States in 1992 says that rich countries like the “United States” will provide assistance to help the poorest countries achieve their climatic goals.

In a statement on the closure of the United States Agency for International Development, Manish Babna, Chairman of the Council of Natural Resources, linked the US Agency for International Development to withdraw Trump from the Paris 2015 agreement.

“Similar to the exit of the Climate Agreement in Paris, this procedure is simply narrowing the window of the basic climate and global health behaviors, with no benefit to the American taxpayers,” he said. “This is a counter -step in reverse and poor timing, while the world is facing a serious climate, health, and environmental and economic crises – all of this will get worse because of this attack on the United States Agency for International Development.”

Editor’s note: The Natural Resources Defense Council is announced with Grist. The advertisers have no role in the editing decisions in GRIS.