United States contributions to the United Nations Green Climate Fund are a no-go in the House’s version of the fiscal 2017 funding bill for the State Department, which passed out of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee Wednesday. Under the draft State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill, “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act or prior Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs may be made available as a contribution, grant, or any other payment to the Green Climate Fund.”
The United States has committed to contributing a total of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, and in March wrote a $500 million check to the program that caused an uproar in the Republican-controlled Congress. That was the nation’s first payment to the fund, which is intended to support climate change programs in developing nations. In the fiscal 2017 budget plan, the Obama administration requested $750 million for the Green Climate Fund. The March payment was the U.S.’s first to the funding mechanism.
A similar provision to the one in the House bill was included in the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee draft but was removed from the final version of the bill with a bipartisan amendment approved during the Appropriations committee markup. The Senate version ended up reserving $500 million for the Green Climate Fund.
For the current fiscal 2016, appropriators denied the administration’s request for funding earmarked for the fund, and the State Department instead had to submit payment via a loophole. The March payment was made using money from the Economic Support Fund accounts, which the department determined was allowed after reviewing the authorities and opportunities available, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom explained during a March 8 hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That fund “supports programming in lots of different countries to address a lot of issues related to economic growth and opportunity,” Higginbottom said.
A full committee markup of the House bill has not yet been scheduled.
