Environment

Government Funding Bill Won’t Block Funds for Global Climate Deal

Here's another reason staunch conservatives will be very angry if the omnibus government funding bill passes.

While the bill won't defund Planned Parenthood or repeal Obamacare, it also won't block the president from contributing to the international climate fund even though Republicans vowed to do so.

The bill, greens and Democrats say, doesn’t explicitly appropriate funding for President Obama’s pledged contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). But since the legislation doesn’t formally block money for the GCF either, Obama is expected to be able to use current discretionary funding streams to send American money to it.

The GFC is a pot of public and private money designed to help poorer nations prepare for climate change. Obama pledged last year to spend $3 billion on the fund by 2020, and he asked Congress to appropriate up to $500 million for it in 2016.

Because Congress has not officially appropriated the funds there is a possibility the next president could decide America should not participate, but I'm fairly confident Hillary Clinton will be out next president and I don't see her making that decision.

Of course we shouldn't get ahead ourselves just yet. The omnibus spending bill has to actually pass before anyone can celebrate and I wouldn't call its passage a certainty.