When the final acts of now former President Obama are analyzed, it will be hard to determine which one was the slimiest.
There are many possible contenders for that dishonor, but the transfer of a significant amount of American taxpayer-dollars per a U.N. climate change agreement Donald Trump opposes should be high on that list.
Barack Obama has heeded calls to help secure the future of the historic Paris agreement by transferring a second $500m instalment to the Green Climate Fund, just three days before he leaves office.
The fund was a key aspect of the Paris agreement signed in 2015, which aims to keep global warming “well below” 2C and aspires to keep warming to 1.5C.
The US committed to transferring $3bn to the fund. The new instalment leaves $2bn owing, with the incoming president, Donald Trump, expected to cease any further payments.
The move followed a large campaign, with more than 100 organisations and nearly 100,000 people calling for Obama to transfer the full $2.5bn owed to the fund.
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that Obama directed $500 million for the first installmentfrom monies slated to fight the Zika outbreak. As with the first installment, the second one occurred using some finance and accounting chicanery.
President-elect Donald Trump and a number of GOP lawmakers have complained that support for the fund wasn’t specifically approved by Congress. The administration argues the current fiscal year’s budget allows it to take the money from an unobligated portion of a total of $4.3 billion in economic support fund assistance. The previous $500 million installment was made in the same way.
I guess we should be grateful that we still have the remaining $2 billion to spend on our national concerns.
Via LI