Former New York mayor Bloomberg writes a cheque to honour the commitments made by the US on climate, before Donald Trump's about-turn.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged to donate 4.5 million dollars to ensure that, despite everything, the United States honours the Paris Agreement on climate.
"America made a commitment and, if the government won't honour it, we all have responsibilities as Americans": with these words Bloomberg explained his decision to CBS, choosing for his announcement the day of Sunday, 22 April, Earth Day. "I have the ability to do it. So I will send a cheque for the amount that America had promised to the organisation, as if it were coming from the federal government," he continued.
The sum of 4.5 million dollars, equivalent to 3.6 million euros, will be donated to the United Nations framework convention on climate change (Unfccc). The contribution will be used for a number of general operations, such as supporting the various states that committed to reducing emissions during the Cop 21 of 2015.
This represents 60 per cent of the amount the US would have pledged to the cause this year, had President Donald Trump not decided to withdraw the US from the Agreement. As a direct consequence of this about-turn, in the budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 approved by Congress, funding for the UN is capped at 3 million dollars — a sharp drop compared to the 7.5 million that had been allocated in previous years.
Bloomberg does not rule out the possibility of repeating a similar move next year, while nonetheless hoping for a change of course from Trump. "He should change his mind and realise that there really is a problem here. America is part of the problem, but it is also part of the solution. We need to get involved and help the world to stop a potential disaster," he said in his CBS interview.
Michael Bloomberg served as mayor of New York for three terms, first as a Republican and then as an independent. Elected as the successor to Rudolph Giuliani in 2001, he led the Big Apple until 2013, before handing over to Democrat Bill de Blasio.
The media empire that bears his name and made his fortune was founded in 1991. Forbes currently places Bloomberg eleventh on its list of the world's wealthiest people, with an estimated net worth of 50.9 billion dollars. Over the years he has also distinguished himself as a philanthropist, donating a total of more than 5 billion dollars to causes such as gun control and climate change.
In the immediate aftermath of Trump's dramatic withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, Bloomberg had led We are still in, the environmentalist resistance movement that united hundreds of companies, federal states, cities and universities, representing 120 million citizens. His latest gesture in support of the Paris Agreement also carries significance primarily for its symbolic value, since the sums at stake to save the planet are of an entirely different order of magnitude. In signing the Agreement, among other things, the US had also promised 3 billion dollars for the Green Climate Fund, a commitment repudiated by Trump on the grounds that it was "too costly".