In this file photo, Michael Bloomberg, the UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, speaks at the Ceremony Awards of “C40 Awards the 11 Best Cities of 2016 for Addressing Climate Change”. (Photo: Reuters/Henry Romero)
New Delhi: In a major embarrassment to United States President Donald Trump, Bloomberg founder and CEO Michael Bloomberg has offered to pay $15 million in funding that the United Nations stands to lose from Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Media reports quoted Bloomberg as saying that the country would go ahead with the agreement. “Americans are not walking away from the Paris Climate Agreement,” the billionaire philanthropist and former New York City mayor was reported as saying. “Just the opposite — we are forging ahead”.
ALSO READ: US Quits Paris Climate Pact, Trump Says Deal Not Tough Enough on India, China
Reports further said that “under the historic agreement, the US would have been expected to contribute that amount to the operating budget of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the accord’s coordinating agency.”
The billionaire said that he believed “non-state actors” will be able to achieve the United States’ 2025 emissions reduction target without the federal government’s support.
In a draft letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, cited in the New York Times, he wrote: “The bulk of the decisions which drive US climate action in the aggregate are made by cities, states, businesses, and civil society. Collectively, these actors remain committed to the Paris accord.”
ALSO READ | Paris Climate Deal: Obama Slams Trump for ‘Rejecting The Future’
Source: News18