Biden Tours Brazil’s Amazon, Says Clean Energy Here to Stay

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden announced new conservation efforts and funding as he became the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon region, touring part of a rainforest nature preserve and meeting with local environmental activists.

With his time in the White House ending in January, Biden said he’s leaving President-elect Donald Trump and the US a “strong foundation to build on, if they choose to do so.”

“It’s true, some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that is underway in America,” he said in Manaus, Brazil, on Sunday. “But nobody, nobody can reverse it.”

New initiatives announced by Biden included $50 million for the Amazon Fund, doubling the US contribution, and a $37.5 million loan from the Development Finance Corp. to support the planting of native trees on degraded grasslands in Brazil. 

The president is touting the delivery of more than $11 billion in climate finance, making good on his pledge to hit at least that level annually by 2024, up from $1.5 billion in fiscal 2021. 

That includes $3 billion to help poor countries adapt to rising seas, more intense storms and other consequences of climate change — adaptation funding that has generally lagged behind money for green energy projects in developing nations.   

Biden’s trip underscores “his personal commitment and America’s continuing commitment at all levels of government and across our private sector and civil society to combat climate change at home and abroad,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has championed fighting climate change and protection of the world’s largest rainforest, didn’t join Biden as he focuses the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro that starts Monday. 

The visit caps Biden’s efforts to spur international funding for rainforest protection. 

In 2023, he pledged to work with the US Congress to provide $500 million through 2028 for the Amazon Fund, an initiative by the Brazilian Development Bank that underwrites protection projects such as indigenous forest management and small-scale farms.

The US president made that pledge after meeting Lula at the White House, when the Brazilian leader promised to restart conservation efforts that languished under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Biden said he hoped to drive a total of $20 billion in public and private commitments to help the rainforest.  

Trump has expressed skepticism about the impact of climate change as well as the benefit of foreign aid, and said he is planning severe cuts to the federal budget. Lula’s decision to skip Biden’s historic Amazon visit highlights how Trump’s election victory is upending geopolitics.

As part of the Biden administration’s domestic efforts, the US Department of Energy announced $18 million on Thursday to fund block grants to local governments for energy efficiency projects, including recycling programs, energy efficiency rebate programs and the purchase of greener street lighting and vehicles for municipal fleets.

The Department of Agriculture also announced $256 million in funding for farmers and rural business owners to expand their use of wind, solar, and hydropower energy. The Transportation Department is providing $1.2 billion to states to underwrite the use of low-carbon building materials in infrastructure projects. 

(Updates with Biden remarks starting in second paragraph.)

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