•HRES 1552 IH 
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 Inter-
national Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) as initia-
tives 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 de-
veloping 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 miti-
gation 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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•HRES 1552 IH 
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 deforest-
ation, yet will likely require international assistance for 
administration, enforcement, and social and institutional 
adjustments, according to the Stern Review on the Eco-
nomics of Climate Change; 
Whereas UNIPCC scientists estimate that an 18 to 58 centi-
meter 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 mi-
grate by 2100; 
Whereas Southeast Asia, and South Pacific and Caribbean is-
lands are vulnerable to more frequent and intense trop-
ical cyclones with loss of life and property similar to Cy-
clone Nargis which killed 138,000 Burmese in May 2008 
and Hurricane Mitch which destroyed 50 percent of Hon-
duras’ crops in 1998; 
Whereas according to some estimates, the area of the Tibetan 
plateau covered by glaciers is decreasing at rates threat-
ening 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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•HRES 1552 IH 
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 con-
sequences 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 De-
cember 10, 2010, in Cancun, Mexico; and 
Whereas the United States must demonstrate leadership if 
the developed world is to meet its pledges to provide ade-
quate finance for climate change adaptation and mitiga-
tion in developing nations: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports the Copenhagen Accord as a 
meaningful step toward achieving the goal of a bind-
ing global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emis-
sions; 
(2) supports finance for developing countries 
consistent with the Accord’s goals; 
(3) calls for enactment of comprehensive energy 
and climate change legislation, including provisions 
for international finance; 
(4) commends the High-Level Advisory Group 
on Climate Change Financing for its preliminary 
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work in defining how finance for developing coun-
tries will be raised and disbursed; 
(5) advises that an appropriate portion of fund-
ing be allotted to develop the processes and organi-
zations required to manage the disbursement of 
funds efficiently and transparently; and 
(6) encourages the international community to 
create a legally binding agreement to reduce green-
house gas emissions as soon as possible. 
Æ 
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