Energy

GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Ban Use Of Americans’ Tax Dollars For UN Climate ‘Slush Fund’

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Republican lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would prevent the Biden administration from allocating finances toward a fund for green energy projects operated by the United Nations.

The No Tax Dollars for the United Nations Climate Agenda Act, introduced in the Senate by Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt and in the House by Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, would prevent funds from going toward the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund, which supports climate projects in predominantly developing countries. The U.S. pledged $3 billion toward the fund at COP28, the U.N.’s climate summit, earlier this month.

“We cannot allow Biden to continue throwing billions of taxpayer dollars towards a useless fund that purports to solve climate change in developing countries, but is actually sending billions to countries like China,” Schmitt said in a statement. “Biden’s radical climate agenda is not just virtue signaling anymore, it’s now coming to fruition by allocating Americans’ hard- earned money to a UN fund that will neither help nor solve anything.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Steve Daines, Bill Hagerty, Tim Scott, Roger Marshall  and Mike Lee as well as Reps. Mark Alford, Eric Burlison, Ann Wagner and Sam Graves. The legislation would also prevent funds from being allocated to or for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

No Tax Dollars for the United Nations Climate Agenda Act by Nick Pope on Scribd

“American taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for an organization that has no proven track record of success, often engages in skeptical science, and over which we have very little control,” Luetkemeyer said in a statement. “I encourage my colleagues to support this effort and prevent the use of federal tax dollars to fund corruption and a radical climate-change agenda.”

China is considered a developing nation by the U.N., and has not paid into the fund despite being the largest global emitter and the world’s second-largest economy. China permitted an average of two coal plants each week in 2022, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The fund in 2019 pledged $100 million to bankroll climate efforts in the Shandong Province of China.

The $3 billion pledge was one of several key climate commitments unveiled by the Biden administration at COP28. American diplomats also rolled out a stringent new set of methane regulations and committed millions of dollars to a de facto international “climate reparations” fund.

“The Biden administration is using Montanans’ hard-earned tax dollars to create a climate slush fund that benefits our adversaries, including China,” Daines said in a statement. “As if the Left’s radical green agenda isn’t bad enough, this abuse of taxpayer funds is unacceptable and it must be stopped.”