Billionaire Bloomberg wants to take over US contributions to the climate agreement

WELT Billionaire Bloomberg wants to take over US contributions to the climate agreement 1 hour • 14 minutes reading time After Trump once again announced his country's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, US billionaire Michael Bloomberg wants to use his foundation to make up for the gap in climate financing. The entrepreneur and former mayor of New York, now the United Nations' special envoy for climate protection, announced that he wants to make up for the missing contributions to the UN climate agency (UNFCC). The USA usually provides 22 percent of the budget of the UN Climate Secretariat, whose operating costs for 2024 and 2025 are estimated at 88.4 million euros. After the USA first withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, Bloomberg had pledged up to 15 million dollars to support the UN climate agency. From 2017 to 2020, cities, states, companies and the public paid for the US's commitments - "and now we're ready to do it again," Bloomberg explained. While fires in California continue to burn large areas and endanger people, US President Donald Trump is now threatening to cut aid from Washington. In his first TV interview as the newly sworn president, Trump tied conditions to federal aid for firefighting: "I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water drain away," Trump told Fox News. Trump's criticism of California's water management is not new - and, according to US media, experts have dismissed it as wrong.