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By Avi Asher-Schapiro [[link removed]] | U.S. Tech Correspondent

To the polls

Climate policy hasn’t exactly been centre stage in the U.S. election. When the topic came up briefly during the only presidential debate, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris only sparred very briefly about domestic energy policy, and then moved on.

But there’s a lot at stake: the earth is teetering dangerously near to crucial climate tipping points that, if exceeded, could trigger sudden and possibly irreversible damage.

At Context, we wanted to zoom in on what the U.S. election could mean for one key mechanism to keep the earth from the brink: the international effort to conserve the Amazon rainforest. [[link removed]]

Last year, the Biden-Harris administration made a $500 million pledge to the “Amazon Fund”: a pool of money from international donors that directly goes towards keeping the Amazon from disappearing. It pays for things like supporting firefighters, reforestation efforts, and cash payments to discourage damaging economic activities.

A volunteer firefighter member rests while working to extinguish a fire rising in the Pantanal, in Corumba, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

So far, most of the money has come from Norway and Germany. If the United States entered the scene, it would be a big shot in the arm for Amazon preservation.

But only about $50 million has been delivered, and the rest could hinge on who controls the White House and the U.S. legislature next year. Trump and the Republican party have given no indication they would deliver the funds.

When I asked Steve Schwartzman, the senior director of tropical forest policy at the Environmental Defense Fund, he didn’t mince his words: "The failure of the U.S. to... step up funding for things like the Amazon Fund would be a disaster.”

Amazon on fire

The rainforest stores the equivalent of two years of global carbon emissions. And it’s disappearing at an alarming rate: wildfires, clearcutting, illegal logging, mining, and other manmade activities have all shrunk the ecosystems’ footprint by around 13%.

My colleague Andre Cabette Fabio spends a lot of time in Amazon and has been looking at what this money from the Amazon Fund pays for on the ground.

He spoke with firefighters, reforestation project managers, and fund managers, who say that the money from the Amazon Fund could help make the difference between a vibrant rainforest ecosystem and one that shrinks, and slowly disappears.

A firefighter looks on during the efforts to control fire in a rainforest located in the municipality of Canta, Roraima state, Brazil February 29, 2024. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

I spent some time calling around Washington D.C. to try and find out if the rest of that $500 million would ever be sent. To do so would require not only the President’s support, but also for the House of Representatives - now controlled by the Republican Party - to include the money in its budget.

But I couldn’t get a single Republican to even talk to me about it - not members of the Brazil Caucus, or the leadership of Conservative Climate Caucus. The Trump campaign too ignored my emails - but Trump has made his views on this sort of initiative quite clear. As president he withdrew the United States from the Paris Accords, backing out of commitments to reduce greenhouse gases.

When I spoke to Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from Los Angeles who has been trying to convince her fellow lawmakers to set aside money for the fund. She told me that absent a convincing Democratic victory at the polls, the U.S. was unlikely to ever send another cent.

And to her mind, that would help hasten, “irreversible climate chaos.”

Next week, Jack will be writing to you from the COP29 talks in Baku.

See you soon,

Avi

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Indigenous women on nature's front lines, but get little funding [[link removed]]

From COP16 talks to the Amazon, women lead the fight to protect Latin America biodiversity, but end up with few conservation funds

Read all of our coverage here [[link removed]] Discover more Nature [[link removed]] Climate Risks [[link removed]] Net Zero [[link removed]] Just Transition [[link removed]] Climate Justice [[link removed]] Green Cities [[link removed]] Thank you for reading!

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