Call me cynical, Obama may really believe he can hold back the tide, but obviously this is not what US voters just voted for. (But who cares what they want, right?)
As a form of resume-building, the gifting approach seemed to work well for Julia Gillard who donated $88million of our tax dollars and lo and behold, became Chairman of the Clinton affilliated Global Partnership for Education.
Indeed, Australia said No to the Green Climate Fund in December 2014 under Tony Abbott, but it didn’t last. Julie Bishop gave $200m to it just a week later. Who’s head of the UN Green Climate Fund now — Julie Bishop. UPDATE: She is co-chairing with Saudi-Arabia, a country that arrests, tortures and beheads 13 year olds but is apparently concerned about polar bears? This is the sad joke that the UN is. Why is any democracy funnelling money into this corrupt bureaucracy?
The Green Climate Fund is not just after the money though, in the past they have also sought to get exemption from prosecution (one law for you, and none for us, eh?!)
If the GCF succeeds in its broader negotiations, not only billions but eventually trillions of dollars in climate funding activities could fall outside the scope of criminal and civilian legal actions
It seems Obama promised $3 billion to the fund in 2012, but didn’t deliver anything til March 2016 when he handed out the first $500 million. So the $3b was advertising and PR, and the reality was a lot less. It’s still $1b too much.
At the present funding level, $1b would last skeptical scientists about 400 years.