IV 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1552 

Supporting a legally binding global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas 

emissions and provide financial assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable nations for adaptation and mitigation measures, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 22, 2010 

Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 

the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting a legally binding global agreement to reduce 

greenhouse gas emissions and provide financial assistance 

to the poorest and most vulnerable nations for adaptation 

and mitigation measures, and for other purposes. 

Whereas, on December 18, 2009, the Conference of the Party 

nations took note of the Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, 

during the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties 

to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

Change (UNFCCC) convened in Copenhagen, Denmark; 

Whereas a legally binding global agreement including mitigation and adaptation financing for developing countries 

provided by developed nations is the best approach to 


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prevent impacts of climate change such as increased frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, and heat waves; 

Whereas the Department of Defense Quadrennial Defense 

Review 2010 states that ‘‘climate change will contribute 

to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration. While 

climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act 

as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries 

around the world . . . extreme weather events may lead 

to increased demands for defense support to civil authorities for humanitarian assistance or disaster response both 

within the United States and overseas’’; 

Whereas developed countries’ pledges of financing for international mitigation and adaptation measures for developing countries were crucial to achieving the Copenhagen 

Accord and will be essential to a legally binding global 

agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; 

Whereas a 2 degree Celsius average global temperature rise 

above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit of global temperature increase targeted by the scientific world and the 

parties to the Copenhagen Accord, will disproportionately 

affect the developing world according to the World Bank, 

including 75 to 80 percent of the global cost of damages 

resulting from climate change; 

Whereas the World Bank and UNFCCC estimate that such 

a 2 degree Celsius warming in average global temperatures could result in a 4 to 5 percent permanent reduction in annual per capita income in Africa, a 12 to 50 

percent decrease in agricultural productivity in South 

America by 2100, and water shortages affecting 


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75,000,000 to 220,000,000 Africans and 7,000,000 to 

77,000,000 Latin Americans by the 2020s; 

Whereas adaptation is defined by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) as initiatives or measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural 

and human systems to actual or expected climate change 

effects, and mitigation is defined as implementation of 

policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance 

removal of aerosols, greenhouse gases, or their precursors 

from the atmosphere; 

Whereas the United States, the European Union, Japan, 

Canada, and Australia emitted approximately 42 percent 

of the world’s greenhouse gases in 2006 while the least 

developed countries emitted 0.5 percent, according to the 

World Resources Institute; 

Whereas the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework 

Convention on Climate Change has estimated that by 

2030 developing countries will require $176,000,000,000 

annually in additional investment and financial flows for 

climate change mitigation and the World Bank estimates 

that $75,000,000,000 to $100,000,000,000 is needed per 

year by 2050 for adaptation in developing countries; 

Whereas the Copenhagen Accord notes that financing for developing countries will be based on the concept of 

additionality in which new public and private, bilateral 

and multilateral, and alternative revenue streams will be 

developed rather than reallocating existing and planned 

overseas development assistance for adaptation and mitigation assistance; 

Whereas the Copenhagen Accord calls for $30,000,000,000 in 

fast start funds and $100,000,000,000 in ongoing annual 


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funding from 2020, but does not delineate the means of 

raising and disbursing those funds; 

Whereas the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change 

Financing is examining potential sources of revenue for 

mitigation and adaptation in developing nations, and this 

Advisory Group has begun its work; 

Whereas developing nations can engage in low-cost mitigation 

efforts through changed agricultural practices, 

afforestation, reforestation, and the reduction of deforestation, yet will likely require international assistance for 

administration, enforcement, and social and institutional 

adjustments, according to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change; 

Whereas UNIPCC scientists estimate that an 18 to 58 centimeter rise in sea level by the end of the century relative 

to levels from 1980 to 1999 would force up to 

94,000,000 people living in low-lying coastal areas to migrate by 2100; 

Whereas Southeast Asia, and South Pacific and Caribbean islands are vulnerable to more frequent and intense tropical cyclones with loss of life and property similar to Cyclone Nargis which killed 138,000 Burmese in May 2008 

and Hurricane Mitch which destroyed 50 percent of Honduras’ crops in 1998; 

Whereas according to some estimates, the area of the Tibetan 

plateau covered by glaciers is decreasing at rates threatening to curtail the flow Asia’s 10 major rivers fed by 

those glaciers, including the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, 

Salween, Irrawaddy, Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, Amu 

Darya, and Tarim, which supply the water for hundreds 

of millions of people; 


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Whereas mustering the political will to fund mitigation and 

adaption for the most vulnerable will require sustained 

commitment and attention; 

Whereas the global community possesses the knowledge and 

ingenuity needed to maintain the dignity and meet the 

basic needs and rights of people affected by the consequences of climate change; 

Whereas the 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties 

to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

Change will take place from November 29, 2010, to December 10, 2010, in Cancun, Mexico; and 

Whereas the United States must demonstrate leadership if 

the developed world is to meet its pledges to provide adequate finance for climate change adaptation and mitigation in developing nations: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) supports the Copenhagen Accord as a 

3 meaningful step toward achieving the goal of a bind4 ing global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emis5 sions; 

6 (2) supports finance for developing countries 

7 consistent with the Accord’s goals; 

8 (3) calls for enactment of comprehensive energy 

9 and climate change legislation, including provisions 

10 for international finance; 

11 (4) commends the High-Level Advisory Group 

12 on Climate Change Financing for its preliminary 


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1 work in defining how finance for developing coun2 tries will be raised and disbursed; 

3 (5) advises that an appropriate portion of fund4 ing be allotted to develop the processes and organi5 zations required to manage the disbursement of 

6 funds efficiently and transparently; and 

7 (6) encourages the international community to 

8 create a legally binding agreement to reduce green9 house gas emissions as soon as possible. 

Æ 


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