Gutting USAID Will Have a Monumental Effect on Combating Climate Change
This story is initially Appeared on Grist and is part of the cooperation of the climate table.
As part of the wide efforts to bypass the congress and to unilaterally reduce government spending, the Donald Trump administration almost closed operations at the US agency for international development, or USAID, an independent federal body that provides humanitarian assistance and financing of economic development around the world. The field on his first day of his stay, President Trump issued an order, stopping all the USAID financing, and subsequently the agency issued an order to stop almost all the recipients of financing, from soup kitchens in Sudan to the Global Humanitarian Group Mercy Corps.
Since then, the new department of state efficiency Elon Mask has closed the agency’s website, blocked employees by e -mail and closed the agency’s office in Washington.
“USAID is a criminal organization,” Musk wrote on Sunday. “Time for him to die.” (The agency is codified in federal legislation, and judicial problems probably argue that the actions of Musk themselves are illegal.)
Although criticism of the sharp demolition of the USAID Trump is largely focused on global public health projects that have long been two -party support, efforts also threaten billions of dollars intended to combat climate change. Funding associated with the USAID climate helps to build renewable energy and adapt to the deterioration of natural disasters, as well as maintain carbon absorpers and sensitive ecosystems. During the administration, Joe Biden USAID accelerated its efforts, focused on the climate as part of an ambitious new initiative, which was supposed to last until the end of the decade. These efforts seem to have suddenly ended, because USAID contractors around the world are preparing to abandon critical projects and dismiss the staff.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who captured USAID as the acting director, said that a sharp shutdown of Musk is “not getting rid of foreign assistance.” But even if USAID ultimately resumes operations to provide extraordinary humanitarian aid, such as hunger support and HIV prevention, the agency can still stop all its work related to the climate under the Trump administration. The result will be a blow to an agreement on an agreement on a climatic agreement in Paris, as significant as the official withdrawal of Trump of the United States from an international treaty. Turning to billions of dollars that Congress has already devoted itself to the struggle with global warming, the United States is ready to disrupt the climate progress far beyond the borders of its own borders.
“This requires a torch for development programs for which the American people paid,” said Gillian Kolduell, who served as the chief director of the USAID climate under the leadership of former President Biden. “Many obligations under the Paris Agreement support funding, and this is very dangerous.”
The United States spend less than 1 percent of their federal budget on foreign assistance, but this still makes the country the largest donor of assistance in the world. USAID distributes from 40 to 60 billion dollars a year – almost a quarter of all global humanitarian aid. While in recent years, the largest share of this help went to Ukraine, Israel and Afghanistan, the agency also distributes billions of dollars to Latin America, Africa south of Sahara and Southeast Asia, where it first of all helps to stimulate food security, healthcare, and Health and sanitation and educational efforts.