WASHINGTON: Billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg announced on Thursday that his foundation will step in to fund the UN climate change body after President Donald Trump declared the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement for the second time.

Bloomberg’s intervention aims to ensure the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) remains fully funded despite the United States halting its contributions.

Washington typically provides 22 per cent of the UNFCCC secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs for 2024-2025 projected at 88.4 million euros ($96.5 million). The secretariat is tasked with supporting the global response to climate threats, and organises international climate conferences, the next of which will be COP30 held in Brazil in November.

“From 2017 to 2020, during a period of federal inaction, cities, states, businesses, and the public rose to the challenge to uphold our nation’s commitments — and now, we are ready to do it again,” Bloomberg, who serves as the UN special envoy on climate ambition and solutions, said in a statement. This marks the second time Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, has stepped in to fill the gap left by US federal disengagement. In 2017, following the Trump administration’s first withdrawal from the Paris accord, Bloomberg pledged up to $15 million to support the UNFCCC.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2025