Pelosi, top Dems will back Clinton’s climate aid pledge to poor nations

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Pelosi, top Dems will back Clinton’s climate aid pledge to poor nations
By Ben Geman - 12/17/09 11:02 AM ET


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other senior Democrats vowed in Copenhagen Thursday to back up Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s pledge to increase U.S. climate aid for poor nations.

But Democrats also endorsed Clinton’s linking the commitment to China and other nations making their emissions curbs subject to outside verification, a major issue of dispute at the international climate summit.

“We salute the announcement that Secretary Clinton made earlier today,” Pelosi said at a press briefing, flanked by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and five committee chairmen. “We are fully prepared to be able to meet the commitment of the United States.”

She pointed to funding for international adaptation in the sweeping energy and climate bill the House approved in June, as well as Congress’s power of the purse. Many poor nations are vulnerable to changes such as increased frequency of climate-related diseases, drought, and displacement.

Clinton pledged that the U.S. would join other wealthy nations in jointly providing $100 billion annually in climate finance to developing countries by 2020.

Clinton’s announcement Thursday, part of an effort to get the faltering talks on track, go beyond the earlier U.S. pledge to work with other countries to jointly provide $10 billion in the 2010-2012 period.

“Today I’d like to announce that, in the context of a strong accord in which all major economies stand behind meaningful mitigation actions and provide full transparency as to their implementation, the United States is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries,” Clinton said.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/72737-pelosi-congress-has-clintons-back-on-climate-aid-pledge