Administration Preparing Plans for International Climate Aid
Lisa Friedman
E&E
Jan 28, 2011
The Obama administration is developing blueprints to guide billions of dollars in U.S. funding to poor countries that face threats from climate change or are transitioning to clean energy economies.
The strategies for international adaptation and clean energy finance remain under wraps. Even businesses and aid groups that have been asked to comment on the strategies say they have not been permitted to actually see the plans they are assessing.
With President Obama under pressure to energize the economy and Republicans gunning to slash foreign aid spending, analysts said they are not surprised the administration is shielding the process from the public glare. Despite the charged political atmosphere, though, many said they hope the strategies -- all part of the Presidential Global Development Policy -- will lay the groundwork for serious global development assistance funding and clean energy investments overseas.
"All of the president's initiatives are under some pretty severe threats right now. There's some fear of not wanting to get into the public domain," noted Ilana Solomon, a policy analyst for ActionAid USA, a global anti-poverty group.
Still, Solomon cautioned, the United States will have to commit serious money to global climate change efforts in order for any plans to be effective. "A fantastic strategy means very little without the requisite finance," she warned. "It's a hollow shell."
According to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the strategies are part of a multi-agency effort under the Global Climate Change Initiative. That initiative, which President Obama announced in September, is one piece of a directive that also includes global health and food security, aiming to put development aid at the heart of America's foreign policy strategy.
In a statement, CEQ spokeswoman Sahar Wali said the agencies "look forward to sharing them publicly when they are completed."
Preview of a 'sketchy outline'
Wali declined to say which agencies are involved or which agency is leading the work. She also did not answer a series of questions about what stage the discussions currently are in, or when the strategies are expected to be released.
Leaders of a handful of environmental and poverty development groups said they were invited to the CEQ offices in December. The meeting came shortly after a U.N. climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, that launched the creation of a Green Climate Fund to channel money into reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. The talks also created a Climate Technology Center and Network for transfer of technology to fight climate change.
Under the Green Climate Fund, the United States promised to help deliver $100 billion annually by 2020. In the short term, though, it is obligated to help raise a total of $30 billion for the world's poorest countries to cope with climate change. U.S. officials estimate they spent $1.7 billion last year on climate change assistance and will be looking for at least that much this year.
The December meeting included representatives from the National Security Council, State Department, Treasury Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, which along with CEQ officials gave a "sketchy outline" of plans for the adaptation and clean energy strategies, one person present said. Administration officials made only oral presentations and distributed no drafts, but invited groups to share their thoughts.
"It has been very strange, because they haven't made it a fully public consultation and there's been nothing in the federal register," one analyst said of the Obama administration's handling of the strategies.
An active suggestion box
Meanwhile, though, groups said they have been filling the administration's inboxes with suggestions for the principles that should guide U.S. efforts on adaptation and technology transfer.
Tonya Rawe, a policy advocate for CARE USA, said she has been offering ideas about how the United States can develop country participation in adaptation efforts. Specifically, she said, groups like hers want to make sure that developing country governments -- but also local groups and organizations with on-the-ground knowledge -- have a strong hand in directing adaptation efforts.
Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, has submitted suggestions for the clean energy strategy looking at how various U.S. bodies from the State Department to the Energy Department to the Export-Import Bank or the Overseas Private Investment Corp. can create an interagency focus on clean technology transfer.
Letha Taweny, a senior associate with the World Resources Institute, said she has been focusing on how countries adapt technologies locally and having strong criteria to evaluate projects and learn from them.
They and others said the administration has not articulated what its priorities are or how officials hope to use the strategies. Schmidt, though, said he hopes they send a clear signal to Congress that the United States has a strong rationale for investing resources abroad.
"It's not going to win over the skeptical folks in the House. But it does help the supporters of this effort be able to articulate what the U.S. is going to do," Schmidt said. "This can help people connect the dots in terms of how this money is going to benefit the U.S."
Rawe said the same goes for adaptation dollars, the need for which she called "immense," and added, "We certainly understand the tight fiscal climate. But investing now to help communities be more resilient is really critical so that we won't end up with some of the emergency needs on the back end."