Election Puts Obama Climate Pledge at Risk on Summit Eve

President Barack Obama’s pledge to lead a global effort raising $100 billion a year to help poor nations combat climate change may be an early casualty of the Republican takeover of Congress.

Lawmakers set to gain roles in setting policy, such as Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, have questioned spending U.S. dollars on the effort, a linchpin of efforts to win a global pact fight global warming.  Inhofe, who has decried climate-change science and is the probable next chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has said the funding is a misguided foreign aid effort.

“This is essentially a proposal that has a double bulls-eye on its back for conservatives,” said Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.  “It combines climate change and foreign aid.”

Obama needs the Republican Congress to approve U.S. contributions to the effort, conceived five years ago as part of United Nations-led negotiations on an agreement to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.  The Green Climate Fund, which is part of the larger $100 billion effort, would help poor nations boost their renewable energy as well as fight flooding and droughts.  A “pledging conference” will be held in Berlin on Nov. 20, the fund announced today.  That’s just 10 days before a climate summit in Lima.

Election Puts Obama Climate Pledge at Risk on Summit Eve