Help impoverished peoples adapt to climate change.

Please contact your U.S. senators.

Bishop Howard Hubbard, as chair of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, has been talking with senators about helping to protect people living in poverty around the world from the effects of climate change.

Please help re-enforce his message by contacting your Senator and urge that any climate change legislation considered in the Senate allocate $3.5 billion of funding generated by the bill to international adaptation programs starting in 2012 and increase rapidly to $7 billion annually by 2020 so that people living in poverty around the world can be protected from the effects of climate change.

This is an important time for action since the Senate Environment and Public Works, Finance, and Foreign Relations Committees responsible for climate change policy will soon consider legislation that begins a serious and overdue effort to face up to our moral and environmental challenges. The House of Representatives has already passed climate change legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB) want to ensure that any climate change bill lowers greenhouse gases and protects the poor and vulnerable-both at home and abroad-who contribute least to climate change but are likely to suffer its worst consequences.

While CRS and USCCB appreciate several provisions in the House's bill, we are deeply disappointed that the funding committed to international adaptation-only 1% of available resources, or approximately $700 million- falls fundamentally short of what is needed initially and that increases in resources are pushed too far off into the future. We therefore urge Senate Committee members to ensure that the Senate's bill include at least $3.5 billion of available funding for international adaptation programs that will help poor and vulnerable peoples around the world.

Please send a message to your senator now. Enter your zip code into the box on the right, labeled “Write to Congress” to get the link for your senator.