President Joe Biden's proposed increase in international climate financing came under scrutiny during a U.S. House hearing, with several Republican lawmakers decrying the increased funding levels and some Democrats calling for even more funding

In his fiscal-year 2022 budget proposal to Congress, Biden asked lawmakers to double the Obama-era climate finance levels and triple the international adaptation funding component by fiscal year 2024.

The $2.5 billion request includes $1.25 billion for the Green Climate Fund, which was established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to help developing nations adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs criticized the proposal during a May 19 hearing, claiming the money could be better spent addressing other security threats.

"This funding proposal is misguided and irresponsible at best," subcommittee ranking member Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said. "I urge the administration to reexamine the priorities they have put forward and focus on the immediate and growing challenges that are testing United States' foreign policy every day."

The U.S. curtailed its international climate finance contributions under former President Donald Trump, though it did not eliminate such funding entirely as he proposed in his fiscal-year 2018 budget request.

"We had four years of destroying this policy," Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., said. "Now we have to build it up."

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, senior adviser for climate at the U.S. Department of State, noted that addressing climate change in time to avoid the worst effects will require an international effort.

"We can only be successful if other countries join our efforts," Martinez-Diaz told the subcommittee. "Climate finance can help unlock deep reductions in other countries' emissions by supporting the deployment of existing clean energy technologies ... and fostering new technologies to accelerate the transition to a net-zero-emissions global economy."

The GOP members also questioned the Biden administration's focus on and investment in combatting climate change given China's significant greenhouse gas emissions. China has pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, a target some critics say is not aggressive enough to address climate threats.

While the U.S. imposes regulations on its industries, "China can carry on growing their economy, expanding their global influence, all while being the world's worst polluter," Rogers asserted.

While acknowledging conflicts between the U.S. and China on many issues, Martinez-Diaz insisted that the world cannot solve the climate crisis without engaging with China. The Biden administration continues to call for transparency in China's emission-reduction plans and is engaging with other nations to ensure broad global pressure is placed on China, the state department official said.

"The administration's policy is to figure out where we can work with them in a targeted and constructive manner, while at the same time keeping the pressure and managing our conflict on those other areas," Martinez-Diaz said. "[Former] Secretary Kerry has been clear ... we will not be using trade concessions or concessions in any other issue areas in order to advance our interests on the climate question. We're dealing with the Chinese very much on the climate question alone in a separate track."

Democrats praised the Biden administration's proposal as a step in the right direction, with some members calling for the U.S. to invest more into overseas climate efforts.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., said Biden's proposal does not go far enough, especially given the proportionally larger contributions from other U.S. allies. The Biden administration's proposed allocation to the Green Climate Fund needs to cover the nation's outstanding debt and make headway on climate efforts, the representative said.

The Biden administration is optimistic that the $1.25 billion commitment, should it pass Congress, would help the U.S. pay off its $2 billion outstanding debt by 2023 and then chart a course for a more significant future pledge, Martinez-Diaz said.

"If we are able to get from Congress what the administration has requested on climate finance, we will be very well on the way to doubling by 2024," the state department official said. "We want to make sure that we have a strong, ambitious, but achievable, level of finance."