IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 595 

Recognizing the significant impact and legacy of Cecil Corbin-Mark in the 

environmental justice community and further recognizing that climate 

change most severely impacts vulnerable and disadvantaged communities 

in the United States and around the world, and that it is the responsibility of the United States Government to work with its global partners 

to promote environmental justice. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 17, 2023 

Mr. ESPAILLAT (for himself and Mr. GRIJALVA) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the significant impact and legacy of Cecil 

Corbin-Mark in the environmental justice community and 

further recognizing that climate change most severely 

impacts vulnerable and disadvantaged communities in the 

United States and around the world, and that it is 

the responsibility of the United States Government to 

work with its global partners to promote environmental 

justice. 

Whereas climate change poses an existential threat for this 

generation and generations to come; 

Whereas the world is already experiencing the omnipresent 

danger of climate change; 


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•HRES 595 IH 

Whereas the recent, current, and future impacts of changes 

in the Earth’s climate present real and immediate dangers to the United States and countries around the 

world; 

Whereas there needs to be a global approach to addressing 

issues of climate change and emergency preparedness; 

Whereas climate change is a threat multiplier to global conflicts, leading to droughts, floods, hurricanes, heat waves, 

fires, natural disasters, and food shortages, in turn exacerbating competition and conflict over resources, displacing large populations, and creating migration and refugee crises; 

Whereas the Paris Agreement acknowledges that all ‘‘Parties 

should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations 

on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations 

and the right to development, as well as gender equality, 

empowerment of women and intergenerational equity’’; 

Whereas the Paris Agreement notes the importance of ‘‘climate justice’’ when mitigating and adapting to climate 

change and recognizes ‘‘the need for an effective and progressive response to the urgent threat of climate change’’; 

Whereas the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C acknowledges that already vulnerable and marginalized communities include communities of color, indigenous peoples, 

and agrarian communities, among others, and that these 

communities experience disproportionate impacts of climate change; 


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•HRES 595 IH 

Whereas the World Health Organization finds that 7,000,000 

people die prematurely every year from diseases exacerbated by air pollution, a major contributor to climate 

change, around 90 percent of which are in low- and middle-income countries; 

Whereas the World Health Organization considers air pollution as the greatest environmental risk to health, and estimates that ‘‘between 2030 and 2050, climate change is 

expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths per year, 

from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress’’; 

Whereas disparities in poverty and health will only increase 

as climate change becomes more extreme; 

Whereas heat islands, urban areas with little green space 

leading to constantly higher temperatures, disproportionately harm the health and well-being of people of color 

and the elderly; 

Whereas access to clean water, in the United States and 

around the globe, is severely impacted by climate change, 

adversely affecting communities of color that already 

struggle with clean water access; 

Whereas studies demonstrate that catastrophic hurricanes 

impacting the United States and Caribbean nations in recent years have been magnified by the effects of climate 

change; 

Whereas families in the ‘‘dry corridor’’ of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador lost up to 80 percent of their corn 

and bean crops in both the first and second harvest seasons of 2018 due to drought; 

Whereas rising temperatures, more extreme weather events, 

and increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns disrupt 


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•HRES 595 IH 

agricultural cycles, endangering the livelihood of Central 

American farmers and driving migration; 

Whereas in southern Africa, crop yield losses compounded by 

climate change would increase food prices by an average 

of 12 percent by 2030, placing a drastic strain on poor 

households, who spend as much as 60 percent of their income on food, the resulting malnutrition could lead to a 

23-percent increase in severe stunting of normal growth 

and development; 

Whereas 800,000,000 people in South Asia depend on water 

from the Himalayas, and as temperatures warm and the 

ice recedes, the combination of droughts and the reduced 

flow threaten Nepal’s tourism industry as well as the 

lives of rural farmers; 

Whereas Small Island Developing States acutely face health 

risks resulting from climate change, which increases 

flooding due to sea-level rise and raises exposure to infectious diseases due to the contamination of freshwater 

supplies; and 

Whereas Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director of WE ACT for 

Environmental Justice, dedicated his career to uplifting 

environmental justice communities, from his native Harlem to around the globe, fighting to combat systemic inequities faced by communities of color: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes the significant impact and legacy 

3 of Cecil Corbin-Mark in the environmental justice 

4 community and further recognizes that climate 

5 change most severely impacts vulnerable and disVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 18, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR595.IH HR595

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•HRES 595 IH 

1 advantaged communities in the United States and 

2 around the world, and that it is the responsibility of 

3 the United States Government to work with its glob4 al partners to promote environmental justice and cli5 mate justice; 

6 (2) recognizes that all efforts to adapt to and 

7 mitigate climate change must include specific protec8 tions for and acknowledgment of the harm to com9 munities of color, indigenous peoples, and other 

10 frontline communities around the world; 

11 (3) recognizes that mitigating climate change 

12 must be a global endeavor, in which the United 

13 States should act as a leader among the inter14 national community; 

15 (4) urges the United States Government to ex16 pand collaboration and cooperation among its global 

17 partners to pursue policies that prioritize climate ad18 aptation among vulnerable and disadvantaged com19 munities, given the disproportionate impact climate 

20 change has on minority communities, who are least 

21 responsible for the causes of climate change yet bear 

22 the greatest burden of its effects; 

23 (5) expresses the need for all countries to pro24 mote vulnerable community-focused adaptation to 


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1 occur across all sectors, including in agriculture, in2 frastructure, and health; 

3 (6) recognizes and encourages all countries to 

4 undertake inclusive stakeholder engagement when 

5 developing policies to address environmental justice 

6 and climate justice; and 

7 (7) expresses that immediate, multilateral ac8 tion is needed to drastically reduce global green9 house gas emissions in order to mitigate the effects 

10 of climate change. 

Æ 


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