The USAID chief on Wednesday promised support for two dozen developing cities to cope with climate change and announced more than $2 billion in new adaptation finance from the private sector, Agence France Press (AFP) reported.
Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, is visiting the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. USAID promised $53 million to help 23 cities in the developing world switch to low-carbon and climate-resilient activities, including electric vehicles.
Cities targeted include Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, the western Indian city of Rajkot, the northeastern South African city of Mbombela, and Hermosillo and Merida in Mexico.
Urban areas are responsible for three-quarters of global carbon emissions. USAID also announced the mobilization of another $2.3 billion in private-sector investment as part of an initiative by President Joe Biden to initiatives such as early-warning systems, climate-resilient food infrastructure and new financial products.
Twenty-one companies have newly committed funding through the initiative, dubbed the President's Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, including IBM and Visa, USAID said, after 10 founding members joined last year at COP27 in Egypt.
Power, the latest senior US official to join lead negotiator John Kerry during the marathon talks, is focusing efforts on helping developing countries adapt to the changing climate.
"COP28 comes at the end of yet another year where people around the world saw their lives turned upside down by record-high temperatures and extreme weather -- from the catastrophic drought and now devastating flooding in the Horn of Africa to the hottest summer in Earth's recorded history," Power said.
"We must do more to address the climate crisis -- and we are," she said in a statement to AFP ahead of her arrival.
