Thread by @AlexEpstein

When you think "Joe Biden's climate policy," think of the 13-year-old Ethiopian girl who will have to keep spending 8 hours a day collecting dirty water for lack of reliable, low-cost fossil fuel electricity.

Learn more in this @Life_Powered_ piece: lifepowered.org/realclearenerg…

"The first thing Aysha picks up when she opens her eyes...is...her collection of large plastic gasoline canisters. The 13-year-old Ethiopian straps them to her camel...and begins the four-plus-hour walk to the nearest river. The water there is dirty and brown and unsanitary..."

"President Biden’s administration...is beginning to enact policies that will deny Aysha and the countless girls like her the opportunity to move from bleak, backbreaking destitution to a self-actualized life of equality and opportunity."

"Billions like Aysha in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America...live with little to no access to electricity. Electricity is the one of the simplest solutions to improved health, economic opportunity, education, nutrition, and comfort...especially for women and girls."

"Yet among President Biden’s 'Climate Day' executive orders is a unilateral ban on 'international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy...no...foreign aid funds to developing nations seeking affordable, reliable energy to lift their citizens out of poverty."

"For Aysha, that funding could have offered clean running water flowing right to her home, a safer way to cook without inhaling the toxic fumes from burning wood, kerosene or even dung, the opportunity to go to school like her brother..."

"If President Biden’s administration is serious about fighting poverty and leading the world in pursuit of equity, it should start by reversing the ban on fossil fuel financing for the developing world."

Read the whole @Life_Powered_ piece by @KTTexas:
lifepowered.org/realclearenerg…