Washington, March 12 (RHC)-- A coalition of nonprofits is suing the Environmental Protection Agency in federal court, seeking to end the Trump administration’s freeze on a $20 billion clean energy finance program created under the Inflation Reduction Act and signed into law by President Biden. 

In related news, the Coalition for Green Capital has sued Citibank, alleging the Wall Street giant has unlawfully refused to disburse the grant funds awarded by the EPA to finance tens of thousands of climate and environmental justice projects.

And President Trump has withdrawn the United States from a United Nations-negotiated loss and damage fund aimed at partly compensating poorer countries from the irreversible effects of the climate crisis.  Nearly 200 countries agreed to establish the fund at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023. 

As of January, the U.S. had pledged just $17.5 million out of about $740 million in pledges from wealthy nations.  Mohamed Adow, climate analyst and founding director of Power Shift Africa, wrote in response: “This regrettable decision risks undermining collective progress and erodes the trust necessary for effective international cooperation.”

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]