How The Us Is Still Channeling Billions Of Dollars Into Climate Projects Despite Trump

For years, reaching nan Port of Abidjan – nan main export terminal successful nan commercialized superior of Côte d'Ivoire, aliases Ivory Coast – would impact agelong waits on grid-locked, poorly-designed roads. The larboard and its surrounding areas are besides considered susceptible to flooding, fixed nan land’s debased elevation and nan deficiency of a workable drainage successful immoderate areas, arsenic good arsenic rising oversea levels and intensifying rainfall storms on nan West African coast.

A $536 cardinal (£399m) finance programme that ran from 2019 to 2025 has, however, boosted nan area’s large wind tolerance and wholly transformed larboard access, pinch captious roads and a span rehabilitated arsenic good arsenic a cardinal business zone. Supported by an engineering institution that seeks to prioritise climate resilience and sustainability successful projects successful emerging markets, roadworthy users now report fast-moving postulation and rainwater that now easy drains away, helping guarantee that this cardinal economical plus will stay viable arsenic nan world warms.

What is funny astir this task that has made Côte d'Ivoire better-adapted to nan escalating ambiance situation is that it was signed off by US nationalist improvement agency nan Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) during nan first management of avowed ambiance skeptic Donald Trump. What’s more, while Trump halted backing for assistance projects astir nan world during nan first fewer months of his 2nd term, his management decided to money Côte d'Ivoire business until its completion aft an initial play of uncertainty. The project’s successes, including its expertise to “outlast rain”, are now highlighted connected MCC’s website.

The communicative of nan Port of Abidjan is not alone. The Independent has recovered that nan Trump management is continuing to move billions of dollars into climate-friendly projects that are helping countries put successful everything from coastal resilience and renewable powerfulness grid infrastructure, to captious mineral proviso chains that are important for star and upwind power.

The investments show really ambiance action is now much aliases little “built-in” to world economical activity, sloppy of immoderate 1 country’s peculiar governmental agenda.

“A task whitethorn beryllium justified politically successful position of power security, competitiveness, infrastructure, cultivation productivity aliases supply-chain resilience, while still having clear ambiance implications,” says Martin Koehring, from nan deliberation vessel ODI Global. “That reflects nan truth that ambiance risks and modulation dynamics are progressively embedded successful nan existent economy.”

“The low-carbon modulation is now profoundly wired into nan economy, finance patterns, business invention and technological development,” agrees Patrick Schroeder, from Chatham House. “It tin beryllium slowed, distorted and made much costly by Trump’s dispute policy, but it cannot beryllium stopped altogether, moreover by an aggressively anti-climate administration.”

There is nary denying that successful astir areas, Trump has had a profoundly antagonistic effect connected world ambiance efforts. As good arsenic removing nan US from a key world ambiance pact – nan Paris Agreement – he has defunded institutions producing ambiance research, and reversed ambiance and rulings for illustration nan alleged “Endangerment Finding”, which served arsenic nan ineligible instauration for national regulations astir ambiance and pollution. Overseas, nan effective closure of nan United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has besides gutted pools of ambiance money that were already acold smaller than what is required to meet nan situation of nan ambiance crisis.

But among those assistance agencies that escaped nan knife, a much affirmative ambiance communicative tin beryllium found.

For months, galore observers feared that MCC, an agency that supports country-led improvement programmes done nationalist “compacts,” would besides beryllium shuttered. In nan end, a number of countries’ agreements were so discontinued, but among those cited arsenic ongoing successful MCC’s 2026 yearly report, location are respective that intelligibly align pinch tackling nan ambiance crisis.

Beyond Côte d'Ivoire, a $550m compact successful Senegal focuses upgrades to nan nationalist energy grid, which is group to thief support nan rapid description of star and upwind energy (up from 5.7 to 17.3 per cent of procreation betwixt 2019 and 2023) and nan replacement of ember pinch cleaner-burning gas-fired powerfulness plants. A abstracted $550m compact successful Nepal will likewise support a powerfulness strategy that is mostly renewable (66 per cent hydropower). A $350m compact pinch Mongolia, meanwhile, has boosted h2o readiness successful nan superior of Ulaanbaatar: a metropolis grappling pinch a h2o situation driven by accelerated urbanisation and ambiance change. That is successful a state wherever temperatures are rising astatine three-times nan world mean rate.

A $202m MCC compact that is backing nan rehabilitation of nan Cotonou-Niamey carrier corridor successful Benin, meanwhile, is required successful ample portion because of nan road’s semipermanent deterioration resulting from heavy rainfall and utmost heat. Another $202m woody pinch Kosovo will support nan improvement of large-scale artillery systems – important for the country’s semipermanent modulation to renewables – while nan US authorities has besides confirmed continued support for a $500m statement supporting coastal resilience successful Mozambique, which is simply a state facing progressively aggravated cyclones and flooding events.

MCC has besides signed caller compacts nether Trump, including a caller $300m programme to support an energy grid successful Côte d’Ivoire that is experiencing booming maturation successful low-cost star power. It is besides successful ongoing improvement discussions pinch Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Tonga: small-island processing states that are among nan astir ambiance susceptible places successful nan world, wherever immoderate caller infrastructure aliases economical business is apt to merge ambiance resilience.

Emily Wilkinson, a mini land states master astatine ODI Global, says that while nan volition successful these countries mightiness beryllium “soft power” successful a geopolitically contested region, successful nan end, immoderate benignant of improvement finance is going to person to encompass ambiance resilience. “You cannot really abstracted nan 2 successful this portion of nan world,” she tells The Independent. These Pacific islands are suffering hugely from some much utmost upwind events for illustration cyclones, Wilkinson adds, arsenic good arsenic slow onset changes resulting from oversea level rises.

MCC has besides been looking to expand further into Liberia and Mozambique, pinch a cardinal attraction connected ample reserves of captious minerals for illustration gold, lithium, and cobalt that nan 2 countries hold. However, while Trump’s authorities is keen to make clear that securing captious mineral proviso chains is captious for nationalist ambitions including nan description of information centres, caller subject hardware, and strategical title pinch China, astir independent analysts work together that request for galore captious mineral is group to mostly beryllium driven by thing that nan president is little keen to promote: nan description of cleanable power technologies.

The maturation successful request for lithium, nickel, cobalt, and graphite successful 2024, up 85 per cent, was driven by nan power sector, according to nan International Energy Agency (IEA), pinch these metals needed successful nan create of power retention systems that are required to return afloat advantage of renewables for illustration star and wind. Growth successful request for uncommon earths and copper was besides mostly driven by cleanable power applications and powerfulness grid description s, nan IEA finds, while JP Morgan Global Research has said that of nan 16 per cent maturation successful world lithium needs expected successful 2026, 58 per cent is group to travel from electrical vehicles and 30 per cent is group to travel from power retention systems.

“National information uses of captious minerals are highly important, but they are besides not really large capable to thrust a marketplace - truthful you request electrical vehicles and cleanable power uses to guarantee demand,” says Bella Tonkology, a elder head astatine nan Climate Policy Initiative deliberation tank. “Renewable power and electrical conveyance uptake globally is besides continuing to turn year-on-year, and that ghost is not being put backmost successful nan bottle.”

Trump’s push for captious minerals tin each beryllium seen successful his support for different US world improvement agency, the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which was reauthorised astatine nan extremity of past twelvemonth pinch a monolithic $145 cardinal boost to its portfolio finance cap. That reauthorisation included a directive that much nationalist money tin now beryllium invested successful middle-income countries and infrastructure projects, bolstering US ambitions to go a competitor to China’s longstanding “belt and road” inaugural crossed Africa and beyond.

Projects listed connected nan DFC website arsenic approved for 2026 besides person a clear ambiance and sustainability benefit, including $475,000 committed to an organisation supporting microfinance successful nan Philippines, which is simply a financial strategy considered captious to assisting climate-vulnerable communities accommodate to nan ambiance crisis. There are besides loans for projects extracting captious minerals that are captious to nan power transition, including for 1 uncommon earths excavation successful Brazil that has a “commitment to make sustainability integral to each determination and action we take”. Representatives for nan excavation declined to remark for this article. The DFC is besides presently successful nan process of considering whether to support 2 awesome upwind procreation projects successful North Macedonia and Egypt, according to documents connected nan bank’s website.

“Energy-price instability, peculiarly for fossil fuels, is pushing much actors toward renewables and diversified power supply,” suggests Jocilyn Estes, from nan Center for Global Development (CGD). The existent geopolitical backdrop, peculiarly successful nan discourse of volatile lipid prices stemming from war successful Iran, is apt catalysing support for little costs and much reliable renewable projects sloppy of immoderate directive from nan top, she adds.

The DFC has besides reinstated its support for a Joe Biden-era mega-infrastructure project, nan Lobito Corridor, securing a $553m loan from nan agency successful December 2025. The task involves nan rehabilitation of a 1,289km railway corridor that runs from nan copperbelt of Chingola successful Zambia, done nan cobalt- and copper-rich forests of nan Democratic Republic of nan Congo, each nan measurement to nan larboard of Port of Lobito, Angola. It is group to boost nan readiness of halfway materials required for cleanable power technologies for illustration solar, wind, and electrical vehicles.

Climate resilience is understandably besides being built into nan bosom of nan Lobito Corridor, fixed developers’ volition of keeping nan economical plus functioning for galore years to come. The DFC website itself describes really roads are group to beryllium made more resilient to threats including bedewed weather, while different improvement organisations moving astir nan corridor explicitly mention a attraction connected climate resilience. This request was evident successful April of this year, erstwhile dense rains – an arena progressively communal successful Southern Africa pinch ambiance alteration – led rivers adjacent nan stations of ⁠Cubal and Caimbambo successful Angola to burst their banks, temporarily forcing operators to suspend railway statement operations.

Elsewhere, nan Export-Import Bank of nan United States – aliases EXIM Bank – has for decades helped US businesses export their equipment by assuming immoderate of nan consequence erstwhile backstage lenders are unwilling to do so. After years of gradually tightening its biology standards, nan slope took a crisp move successful May 2025, erstwhile Trump lifted a 12-year moratorium connected ember financing, making it 1 of nan only awesome export in installments agencies successful nan world consenting to finance caller coal-fired powerfulness projects.

However, much than a twelvemonth later, location is small motion that this has translated into a awesome caller era for world coal, irrespective of Trump’s hopes. Website filings propose that nan numbers of fossil substance projects backed by some nan EXIM Bank and nan DFC are comparable to nan numbers seen nether nan Biden administration.

“Given really galore countries person already moved distant from coal, moreover if nan doorway is now unfastened to investment, it doesn't mean we'll needfully spot bankable ember projects deals that present some strategically and financially,” suggests CGD’s Estes.

Among projects supported by nan EXIM Bank successful nan months since Trump's 2nd inauguration, location are a number that intelligibly align pinch ambiance adjustment and decarbonisation ambitions, The Independent has found. These see financing for exports of drought- and disease-resistant seeds; instrumentality to boost harvest efforts successful Africa; a artillery manufacturer; a institution specialising successful cleaning up contaminated land; and mining instrumentality utilized to extract captious minerals needed for nan power transition.

The slope has besides this twelvemonth launched a awesome $10bn effort to statement up US proviso chains of captious minerals, erstwhile again bolstering nan readiness of cardinal minerals that are required for debased c technologies.

The MCC, DFC, and EXIM Bank of nan United States were each approached by The Independent for comment, arsenic were companies progressive successful DFC and EXIM Bank deals highlighted successful this article. All either declined to remark aliases did not respond earlier publication.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Independent: “President Trump has reversed Joe Biden’s Green New Scam and stopped billions of payer dollars from being wasted connected nan Left’s bogus ambiance agenda. Additionally, nan President has taken historical action to retreat nan United States from world organizations that are contrary to nan champion interests of nan American people. The improvement programs that stay are important to strengthening our proviso chains, accessing captious minerals, and advancing our technologies.”

Amy Cano Prentice, a elder investigation serviceman astatine ODI Global, suggests that possibly location is little to separate betwixt US statesmanlike administrations connected ambiance than 1 mightiness expect. “It was successful truth nether President [Barack] Obama and President Biden that nan US regained its position arsenic nan largest yearly shaper of lipid and exporter of gas, and President Biden’s management saw lipid accumulation deed a grounds high,” she says.

But moreover if location are immoderate grounds for ambiance optimism successful nan Trump administration’s improvement agenda, nan broader image for world ambiance action remains difficult. “Emissions request to beryllium trim successful half by 2030 to forestall nan worst effects of ambiance change,” says Prentice. “'On whether these findings could beryllium a origin for hope, I really do not deliberation this fundamentally changes nan truth that nan US, which is nan biggest humanities emitter, is not devoting resources to a proportional grade to solving nan problem it is mostly responsible for creating.”

This article has been produced arsenic portion of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project