US names officials to board of new global climate fund - E&E News by POLITICO
US names officials to board of new global climate fund - E&E News by POLITICO
The United States has nominated a climate economist to sit on the board of a new global fund that was established to help countries damaged by the irreparable impacts of climate change.
Rebecca Lawlor, an economist and climate finance negotiator at the Treasury Department, will hold the main seat, while Christina Chan, a State Department official who represented the U.S. on a transitional committee that helped craft the fund’s design, will serve as Lawlor’s alternate.
The seats were listed Friday on the United Nations climate body’s website, signaling an end to a monthlong dispute between wealthy nations over which countries would take 12 of the 26 seats dedicated to developed countries.
The move puts Treasury in the lead on the U.N.-backed fund rather than State, which led negotiations over its creation — though the arrangement means the two agencies still will work closely together.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.