Last week, in his speech at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), President Joe Biden reiterated that the United States intends to quadruple its climate-related financial commitments to developing countries by 2024. Biden first made this announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

As Biden noted in his Glasgow speech, “We want to do more to help countries around the world, especially developing countries, accelerate their clean-energy transition, address pollution, and ensure the world we all must share a cleaner, safer, healthiest planet. And we have an obligation to help.”

But pre-conference discussions that were far less public suggest much of those new financial commitments could come with major strings attached.