The payment is the second from the Obama administration to support the fund. | AP Photo Obama administration cuts second $500M check to Green Climate Fund

The State Department announced Tuesday it is sending a second, $500 million payment to the Green Climate Fund.

The payment is the second from the U.S. to support the fund, which is intended to provide climate adaptation money to developing nations, and serves as the financial mechanism of the Paris climate agreement. The fund is supposed to reach $100 billion by 2020, with both public and private funding from around the world.


The move comes just days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, a man who has called climate change "a hoax" though he has waffled on whether the U.S. should stay in the Paris agreement.

The State Department pulled the money from the fiscal year 2016 Economic Support Fund appropriation, the same appropriation it used for the first $500 million payment last year. Republicans then raged at the use of the money, arguing the administration was spending unappropriated funds.

Democrats were elated.

"I commend the Administration for making this contribution, which has bipartisan support in the Senate," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the State Subcommittee. "It will help give us a ‘seat at the table’ in future climate change negotiations which even President–elect Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of State endorsed as part of our nation’s global leadership."