US pledges to be a climate finance leader but defends gas expansion

The US will “continue to be a leader” in climate finance, the White House’s top climate official has promised, though without specifying how much it would provide to poor countries.

John Podesta, senior adviser to Joe Biden on international climate policy, also defended the large-scale US expansion of gas production, saying the world was fortunate America was strengthening its supply, given the demand for non-Russian sources after the invasion of Ukraine.

“The US is in a position to be a leader in the effort [to supply climate finance to the poorer world],” he said in an interview on Monday. “We intend to continue the leadership and be very aggressive in the negotiations during the course of this year.”

He pointed to the chasm on the issue between Biden and Donald Trump, his challenger for president this November, who is expected to rein back on US climate commitments if elected.

“Obviously, there’s a difference of views reflected in the two principal candidates running for president,” said Podesta, who took over as chief adviser on the climate after John Kerry stepped down earlier this year. “President Biden is committed to not only doing what we need to do to cut our own emissions in half, but also support the world as it’s moving towards a more sustainable pathway.”

He would not say whether the US would commit greater sums to climate finance, but said it was on track to meet Biden’s commitment to provide $11bn, a target that campaigners and developing countries have said is woefully inadequate given the size of the US economy and its responsibility for past emissions, but is many times greater than the $1.5bn on offer under Trump in his previous term.

Podesta defended the huge US expansion of oil and gas production, which has come in spite of its climate targets, and the recent US decision to slap tariffs on many green goods from China, including electric vehicles.

“The US is now the number one producer of oil and gas in the world, the number one exporter of natural gas, and that’s a good thing, because following the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and the need that Europe had to rely on different sources rather than Russia fossils, it was important that the US could step up and supply a good deal of that need,” he said. “But over time, the science is clear, we’ve got to transition away and begin to replace those resources with both zero carbon electricity and renewable resources.”

He did not specify a time frame, but said the US was committed to cutting carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously said there can be no new oil and gas infrastructure if the planet is to avoid exceeding 1.5C (2.7F) of global heating above preindustrial times. The US had the most new oil and gas projects in 2022 and 2023, a recent report found, a surge in production that threatened internationally agreed climate goals.

Podesta accused China of deliberately overproducing green goods, steel and aluminium, and using coal-fired power to do so, increasing global emissions. He added: “The economic security of the US and [its commitments to cut emissions] rely on the need to have an economy that is not overly dependent on a single source of supply, for critical minerals, for batteries, for other upstream green technologies. We need to diversify that supply. We’re witnessing a renaissance of manufacturing in the US in the green technology space, and will resist unfair trade practices that are going to undermine that investment.”

In November, only days after the US presidential election, governments from around the world will meet in Azerbaijan for the Cop29 UN climate summit to come up with a “new collective quantified goal” on climate finance from rich to poor countries, to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impact of extreme weather. There is no consensus on how big that goal should be, though developing countries would like it to reach the trillion mark rather than the $100bn a year that is the current minimum.

There is also no agreement on who should provide the cash. Countries classed as developed under the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are the only ones obliged to provide finance, but many of those want other big economies and petro states, including China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to contribute.

Podesta made it clear that the US wanted other countries to provide more. “We need a realistic commitment,” he said. “We need other contributors to support the needs of the world, including people with the resources and the obligation as a result of their own emissions to come forward into and try to support the global mobilisation that will come across the board from public resources from domestic resources from the private sector and from philanthropic resources to meet the massive need that is there.”