Perhaps intimidated by the statements of the newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump, who considers climate change "a Chinese invention", and who declared he would withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the outgoing president, Barack Obama, made a new 500 million dollar contribution to the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) just days before leaving the White House.

What is the Green Climate Fund

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), established in 2011 during the UN world conference, is an important multilateral investment instrument for projects supporting developing countries that wish to reduce polluting emissions and combat climate change.

Obama vs Trump

When the GCF Board met for the first time in 2015, more than 30 countries pledged to donate more than 10 billion dollars to the fund. The United States committed to contributing a total of 3 billion dollars over four years. President-elect Trump, however, declared his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Perhaps precisely for this reason, in order to honour the commitments made during COP21, Obama decided to allocate the new contribution to the fund. "The Obama administration refuses to let President-elect Trump and his staff of climate deniers dictate the approach to tackling the climate crisis," said Tamar Lawrence-Samuel of Corporate Accountability International.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5nKMI8vl1A

Essential support for tackling the climate crisis

The aim of the Green Climate Fund is to make economic growth possible without it being dependent on fossil fuels, spurring the development of sustainable economies and creating new investment opportunities. "It is a fundamental tool that helps to catalyse billions of dollars in public and private investment, in countries dealing not only with the challenges of climate change, but with the immense economic opportunities inherent in the transition to a low-emissions economy," a spokesperson for the US State Department said. "I thank President Obama for making America a world leader at the forefront of climate action and for taking another important step towards fulfilling America's commitment to donate 3 billion dollars to the fund," commented Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Obama's love of the oceans

Obama is the president who has created the greatest number of nature reserves in the entire history of the United States — 27 in all — including the largest marine protected area in the world. The protection of ocean ecosystems in particular seems almost like a personal mission for the now former president. During a recent visit to Midway Atoll, located to the west of the Hawaiian archipelago in the Pacific and part of the new protected area, he spoke of the fascination the marine world holds for him. He attributes his characteristic calm to the fact that he was born in Hawaii, where he learned to love unspoilt nature and to appreciate the incredible resilience of the seas. "There I witnessed the extraordinary power of nature to regenerate itself, provided we do not constantly seek to destroy it."