Clinton Joins $100 Billion Pledge

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 17

The climate change summit must be reaching its climax because the big hitters have started to arrive. In the late morning on Dec. 17, it was U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s turn to take the stage. Striding into a packed press conference with cameras flashing, Clinton laid out a financial incentive to get a deal done: The U.S. would participate in a $100 billion annual fund by 2020 if a climate change compromise is reached.

That sounds like a lot of cash, though it’s at the low end of most estimates of how much money will be needed to tackle global warming. And Clinton also added caveats: the money would only be for the least developed countries (read: not China); it would only be available if transparent funding mechanisms were in place (read: no corruption); and it would focus on forestry and adaptation projects (read: no subsidies for renewables in big emerging economies).

“One hundred billion dollars a year is a lot of money,â€