US President Joe Biden introduced a “historic” $4 billion pledge for a World Bank fund that helps the world’s poorest international locations, the White House mentioned Monday, earlier than Donald Trump takes workplace with a brand new cost-cutting agenda.
The outgoing chief unveiled the cash for the International Development Association as he attends the G20 summit underway in Rio de Janeiro, his final time on the gathering of world leaders.
“The president introduced at the moment that the United States intends to pledge $4 billion over three years… which is admittedly thrilling,” a senior US administration official informed reporters on situation of anonymity.
The official mentioned the pledge wouldn’t be binding on Trump’s incoming administration however mentioned earlier Republican governments had additionally backed top-ups for the fund.
US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer earlier known as the pledge “historic” and mentioned Biden would “rally different leaders to step up their contributions.”
The International Development Association is the concessional lending arm of the World Bank and is used for a number of the poorest international locations within the globe, together with for initiatives targeted on local weather.
During a six-day tour of South America, Biden has been making an attempt to shore up his worldwide legacy forward of President-elect Trump’s return to the White House on January 20.
On Sunday he visited the Amazon rainforest in Brazil to advertise his report on local weather change, saying that the United States had hit its goal of accelerating bilateral local weather financing to $11 billion a yr.
Billionaire Trump has pledged to take a wrecking ball to a lot of Biden’s insurance policies and has appointed tech tycoon Elon Musk as head of a fee to focus on what he calls federal authorities waste.