Environmental experts in Rwanda have said that developing countries including Rwanda could get more financial support to mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects following the declaration by the new US President Joe Biden to rejoin Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, aims to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius with an ambition to contain any increase at below 1.5 degrees. In 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the agreement. However, the withdrawal did not take effect until the end of 2020, one day after the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Now Biden has ordered federal agencies to start reviewing and reinstating more than 100 environmental regulations that were weakened or rolled back by former President Donald J. Trump. A letter to the United Nations signed by Mr. Biden on Wednesday formally starts the 30-day process of bringing the United States back into the accord. Environmentalists who talked to The New Times said the move by the US to rejoin the agreement has multiple benefits for the whole world especially developing nations including Rwanda that are most vulnerable to climate change effects. Vuningoma Faustin, the coordinator of Rwanda Climate Change and Development Network (RCCDN) that is composed of over 26 organisations engaged in climate change and development, said that the benefits are in many ways considering that the US is the second country among biggest emitters of carbon dioxide after China worldwide. “First, rejoining the Paris Agreement means Biden will set up pledges to reduce such emissions. This is a benefit because least developed countries like Rwanda are more vulnerable to climate change effects yet they emit less emissions,” he said. Second, he explained, as the US rejoins the agreement, it will contribute to a climate fund that supports developing nations to cope with such climate change effects. Normally the developed nations which are biggest emitters provide financial support to developing nations so they are able to adapt to climate change effects but Trump had withdrawn such support worth $3 billion which President Obama had committed to the Green Climate Fund ((GCF). The withdrawal from the Paris agreement was expected to impact other countries by reducing its financial aid to the Green Climate fund. GCF was created to support the efforts of developing countries to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. The termination of the $3 billion U.S. funding by Trump could also ultimately impact climate change research and decrease societys chance of reaching the Paris Agreement goals, as well as omit U.S. contributions to the future Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. IPCC is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations that is dedicated to providing the world with objective, scientific information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of the risk of induced climate, its natural, political, economic impacts and possible response options. Climate change expert Vuningoma says that developing nations have limited financial capacity to adapt to climate change effects and therefore US rejoining the agreement could be an additional response. “For example, Rwanda has been suffering from floods and it requires huge financial capacity to recover and continue to adapt. If The US rejoins the agreement, it means it will contribute to a climate finance fund that supports poor countries including Rwanda,” he said. He said climate finance can go to international organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations and others.
