United States quits board of UN climate damage fund, letter shows

By Kate Abnett and Virginia Furness

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States has withdrawn from the board of the U.N.'s hard-negotiated climate damage fund, dedicated to helping poor and vulnerable nations cope with climate change-fuelled disasters, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

The withdrawal is one of many steps taken by President Donald Trump's administration to end U.S. support for addressing climate change and comes amid a broader pullback by the world's richest country from multilateral initiatives.

Since taking office in January, it has halted the participation of U.S. scientists in global climate assessments, withdrawn from funding deals to help nations reduce coal use, and again taken the country out of the Paris climate agreement.

Nearly 200 countries had agreed to launch the "loss and damage" fund at the COP28 U.N. climate summit in 2023, in a victory for developing nations that had demanded help for years over increased extreme weather events.

"Both the United States Board Member and United States Alternate Board Member will be stepping down, not to be replaced by a U.S. representative," Rebecca Lawlor, the U.S. representative on the fund's board, said in a March 4 letter to fund co-chair Jean-Christophe Donnellier.

The withdrawal is "effective immediately", it added.

The U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The climate damage fund is hosted by the World Bank, whose president is appointed by the United States. The U.S. letter did not mention any changes to the hosting arrangement, or make clear if quitting the board entailed a full pull-out from the fund.

As of January 23, wealthy countries had pledged $741 million to the fund, according to U.N. data, with the United States putting up $17.5 million. It is unclear if it will now honour that pledge.

The fund is due to start financing projects this year, supporting vulnerable countries that have suffered irreparable damage from drought, floods and other climate impacts, such as agricultural land rendered barren.

Activist Harjeet Singh said the United States' withdrawal from the fund did not absolve the country of its responsibility to address climate damage.

"As the largest historical emitter, the United States bears a significant share of the blame for the climate adversities affecting vulnerable populations worldwide," said Singh, director of the non-profit Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; additional reporting by Virginia Furness; editing by Simon Jessop, Aidan Lewis)