This story is originally Appear Barrier It is part of Climate cooperation.
As part of a wide effort to bypass Congress and reduce government spending by one side, the Donald 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 around the world. 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 government efficiency management of Elon Musk has closed 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”, Mousse published 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 Joe Biden administration, the US Agency for International Development 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 in exchange for,” said Gillian Caldwell, who held the position of chief climate official 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 is distributed between $ 40 billion and $ 60 billion annually – at least 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.
