For Immediate Release

Contact: bowman.press@mail.house.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) led a letter to Special Envoy John Kerry urging the U.S. to support loss & damage (L&D) funding to help developing countries recover from climate disasters. This  fund should channel new public funding from developed to developing countries to help them recover from climate disasters. This L&D proposal could be a small yet important first step in pushing U.S. policy towards transformative climate and economic justice globally.

“The United States is the world’s largest historical contributor to climate change,” the Members wrote. “Yet as we’ve seen with the historic flooding in Pakistan, the fourth consecutive drought in the Horn of Africa, the painfully slow recovery from hurricane damage in Central America, among many other examples, it is the Global South that disproportionately suffers the harms. We have both a moral and a strategic responsibility to provide comprehensive support for countries facing climate disaster, including debt forgiveness and reparations.” 

In October, the Biden administration accepted formal discussions of loss & damage at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27.  In his speech at United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), President Biden pledged to work with Congress to increase U.S. international climate finance and urged accelerating new and expanded domestic and global efforts in supporting developing countries. Developing countries often pay the highest price for climate change while contributing very little to greenhouse gas emissions. 

The letter is also signed by Reps. Cori Bush, André Carson, Steve Cohen, Jesús G. “Chuy” García, Raúl M. Grijalva, Andy Levin, Betty McCollum, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, Jan Schakowsky and Rashida Tlaib 

 To read the full letter please click here. 

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