Biden pledges huge US spending on green goals at G20 summit

President Biden on Saturday pledged a massive infusion of US taxpayer dollars in Asian and African railroads and green infrastructure in a bid to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multi-billion-dollar influence effort.

“This is a big deal,” Biden said at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India. “This is a really big deal.”

The White House promised more than $1 billion of US funding — with much more to come — during Biden’s meetings with the leaders of India, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and others representing the world’s largest economies.

At the top of Biden’s agenda was a plan to create a new rail and shipping corridor that would connect India to Europe through the Middle East through the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Israel.

The White House provided no details on funding or timelines for the massive project, which will incorporate data and electrical cables alongside the rails, G20 leaders said.

But Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman floated a figure of $20 billion during the announcement — without specifying who would be expected to pay.

A separate “Trans-African Corridor” rail project, also announced by the group and spearheaded by the US and EU, would link the port of Lobito, Angola with rare-earth and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia — crucial materials for electric cars and other technologies needed to wean the world off fossil fuels.

Biden touted the potential African rail system as a “game changing regional investment.”

“Both of these are huge, huge steps forward,” the Amtrak-loving president enthused.

Meanwhile in a separate statement, the Biden administration promised more than $1.1 billion worth of US funding for projects in India and Mozambique aimed at boosting Democrats’ ecological agenda.

The U.S. Development Finance Corporation will send up to $425 million in financing to TP Solar Limited for new solar energy facility in Tamil Nadu, India, along with up to $500 million to launch a “renewable infrastructure investment fund” in India and $150 million for a graphite-mining company in Mozambique.

The DFC, a taxpayer-funded federal agency, will also loan $50 million to an Indian pharmaceutical company to produce “insulin biosimilars,” a diabetes treatment that has not yet won the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s about creating jobs, increasing trade, strengthening supply chains, boosting connectivity, laying foundations that will strengthen commerce and food security for people across multiple countries,” Biden said during his prepared remarks.