Video: U.S. Govt Funds Other Nations’ Militaries More Than It Funds Climate Protection

At the end of 2024, the National Priorities Project released a new analysis of U.S. contributions to the Green Climate Fund vs. foreign military financing. The reports reads, “Over the last decade, U.S. funding to the Green Climate Fund, the primary fund for international climate resilience, totaled $2 billion. In the same period, Congress approved at least $79 billion – 40 times more funding – in aid to foreign countries to finance the purchase of U.S.-made weapons.”

Report co-authors Aspen Coriz-Romero and Hanna Homestead joined Talk World Radio to shed light on how the U.S., a major contributor to the climate crisis, is purposefully short-changing the Green Climate Fund, a vital climate finance mechanism established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist historically underrepresented nations on the frontlines of the climate crisis with adaptation and mitigation efforts.

“We’re the greatest cumulative producer of carbon emissions, which is why we have an obligation to be contributing towards funds like the Green Climate Fund, which are trying to mitigate those harmful impacts that are happening in the places that are least responsible for creating the climate change that’s impacting them today,” Hanna explained.

Aspen added that the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference ignored the needs of the Global South, and glossed over the critical link between militarism and climate catastrophe. “When we think about oil, and gas, and fossils, we have to think about how those are so deeply interlinked with U.S. militarism. The U.S. spends about $81 billion annually to ‘defend global oil supplies.’ So, these things are deeply connected and feed into each other. When we think about one, we definitely need to be thinking about the other.”

Watch their full interview on Talk World Radio below.