President Joe Biden is visiting the Amazon rainforest today, becoming the first U.S. president to do so.
It’s part of a wider South American trip that began with Biden meeting with leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Peru. After today’s Amazon-by-air tour, he’ll attend the G20 summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and meet with that country’s president, Lula da Silva.
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The diplomatic trip includes several funding pledges that the Biden administration says will promote climate preservation, which come as President-elect Donald Trump, a noted climate change skeptic, prepares to take office for a second time.
The U.S. is now providing $11 billion per year “international climate financing,” according to the White House, and Biden will also sign a proclamation designating Nov. 17 as International Conservation Day.
“Today, as part of his historic trip to the Amazon, President Biden will announce that the
United States has fulfilled his historic pledge to increase U.S. international climate finance to
over $11 billion a year by 2024,” a release from the White House said, “making the United States the largest bilateral provider of climate finance in the world.”
Biden will be in Manaus, Brazil, meeting with native Brazilians ahead of the brief tour, and also visit an Amazon-themed museum along the way.
The Biden administration said in 2023 that it would make a $500 million contribution to a rainforest preservation effort knows as the Amazon Fund, and the White House announced Sunday that it had provided $50 million toward that commitment.
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It will be one of the last acts of Biden’s presidency, though it’s not the only trip he still has on his schedule.
In early December Biden will travel to Luanda, Angola, where he will meet with leaders of the country and celebrate its “role as a strategic partner and regional leader,” according to a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.