To prohibit the use of Federal funds to negotiate or contribute to international agreements that provide for "loss and damage" funds as a result of climate change.

Bill: 117-hr-9554
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. LaMalfa, Doug [R-CA-1]
Introduced: 2022-12-14
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2022-12-14
text: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2022-12-14
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This bill prohibits the expenditure of federal funds to negotiate or contribute to international agreements providing for <em>loss and damage</em> funds as a result of climate change.</p>

tv_txt: I 117th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 9554 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES December 14, 2022 Mr. LaMalfa (for himself, Mrs. Boebert , Mr. McClintock , Mr. Rouzer , Mrs. Hartzler , Mr. Mast , Mr. Jackson , Mr. Bost , Mr. Smith of New Jersey , Mr. Weber of Texas , and Mr. Mooney ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To prohibit the use of Federal funds to negotiate or contribute to international agreements that provide for loss and damage funds as a result of climate change.

1. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) On November 26th, 2022, the Biden Administration agreed to establish a climate justice fund which compels United States taxpayers and other wealthy nations to pay developing countries for loss and damage caused by natural disasters. (2) The world’s top polluter, China, generated more CO 2 in 2019 than the United States and the next four largest countries combined, and many individual corporations in China have more sway over warming temperatures than most developed countries as a whole. (3) Despite being the world’s second-largest economy, China is still categorized as a developing country by the United Nations and enjoys the same differential treatment afforded to nations like Guinea-Bissau and Yemen. (4) Other countries the United Nations has identified as developing , and are therefore still eligible for the $1,000,000,000 in United States taxpayer dollars committed by President Biden to the Loss and Damage fund include the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Russian Federation, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Cuba, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. (5) According to a study by Accenture, 93 percent of all large companies with net zero emission commitments have failed to back those pledges, and are larger polluters than most developed nations. (6) In December 2009, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Todd Stern, President Obama’s special envoy for climate change, outright rejected arguments by diplomats from developing nations that the United States owes them hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations for decades of American emissions, stating, I actually completely reject the notion of a debt or reparations or anything of the like , he said. (7) President Biden’s own climate envoy, John Kerry, was quoted at the COP27 summit on November 12th, 2022, stating, It's a well-known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish . . . some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability , yet, a week later, the Biden Administration had caved to activist demands, and Kerry released a statement saying he welcomes the fund’s creation. 2. Prohibition on funds to negotiate or contribute to international agreements that provide for loss and damage funds as a result of climate change None of the funds available to any Federal department or agency may be used to negotiate or contribute to international agreements that provide for loss and damage funds as a result of climate change.