Special Climate Envoy John Kerry Says “No Climate Reparations” for Developing Countries, Continuing the U.S. Government’s Long Opposition to Environmental Compensation

The United States will not pay climate reparations to developing countries under any circumstances, Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry stated in his July 13, 2023, testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee during a hearing on the State Department’s climate agenda. Kerry’s testimony, scheduled just days before a visit to China for another round of bilateral talks on climate negotiations, comes amidst international disputes over the landmark “Loss and Damage” Fund, an international finance mechanism that would provide assistance to nations most vulnerable to climate change that was established at the November 2022 Conference of Parties (COP) 27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.[1]

Kerry’s July 13 testimony is the latest indicator that the U.S. Government will not compensate developing nations for environmental damages caused by developed ones. Previous indicators that add context to Kerry’s recent comments are outlined in the National Security Archive’s July 6, 2023, briefing book, 50 Years of U.S. Resistance to Environmental Reparations. This posting captures nearly half a century’s worth of documentation from U.S. policymakers on how developed countries could avoid financially supporting developing countries—despite being the largest greenhouse gas emitters. 

The Archive’s posting features a range of declassified intelligence notes, memorandums of conversation, and cables from the Nixon to Obama Administration, underscoring the U.S. government’s long opposition to environmental compensation measures for developing countries. Beginning with the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) in Stockholm, Sweden, the posting tracks several State Department, Department of Energy, and high-ranking White House officials and their concerns that developing countries would continue to link issues related to development and environmental degradation “for years to come.”

The posting notes how the United States consistently maintained the hardline that developing countries make reciprocal commitments towards emissions targets. The U.S. held this stance in the 1972 UNCHE, the 1992 Rio Conference, and the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, even though developing countries contribute only a fraction of the greenhouse gases that developed countries do. The U.S. government also emphasized scientific research, market mechanisms, and regulations to reduce greenhouse gas, “all while ensuring the most flexible emissions commitments” for industrialized nations.

Key documents published in the briefing book include:

• A May 31, 1972, State Department Bureau of Intelligence Research Intelligence Note, Stockholm Environment Conference: African Position, assessing “increasing African militancy” on environment and ecological issues;
• A May 1, 1992, White House Memorandum of Conversation from a meeting between President George H. W. Bush and Japan’s Minister of Trade and Industry Kozo Watanabe, in which Bush makes clear that he will not sacrifice the U.S. economy for the sake of environmental compensatory calls from developing nations; and
• A September 24, 2015, State Department Cable outlining the U.S. stance on finance mechanisms ahead of 2015’s COP21 in Paris; plus many more.

National Security Archive staff have filed several FOIA requests related to Kerry’s visit to China, as well as for a May 2022 email referenced by Representative Bill Huizenga (R-MI) during the July 13 hearing, in which the State Department’s Director of Climate Finance suggested a call or meeting to update Kerry on the FY2022-2023 budget, “focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper.”

Huizenga also inquired about a FOIA request submitted by his staff concerning the FY2022-2023 budget during the hearing, which the State Department had estimated it would take 3 years to answer. Kerry responded that he couldn’t “imagine any FOIA [request] that would take that long” to process. When pressed further by Huizenga, however, Kerry agreed to communicate with the State Department’s FOIA office to address the request “as soon as possible.”

It remains unclear how the U.S. government will navigate its contributions to the Loss and Damage fund, but Kerry’s opposition to climate reparations appear to be in line with longstanding U.S. resistance to environmental liability.

For more context on climate cooperation between the United States and China in the wake of Kerry’s most recent bilateral talks in Beijing, see Archive posting The U.S. and Climate Change: Washington’s See-Saw on Global Leadership.

[1] Unlike a reparations program, the Loss and Damage fund makes no mention of developed countries’ liability or responsibility to ‘foot the bill’ for climate damages. Instead, the fund relies on voluntary commitments from countries, although the specific parameters of the funding mechanism remain uncertain heading into November’s COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.