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S 3509

Global Climate Resilience Act of 2025

119th Congress Introduced by Andy Kim and 1 co-sponsor

The bill creates U.S. debt-reduction tools and resilience funding for climate-vulnerable countries, enabling debt swaps, buybacks, and a World Bank climate insurance program.

Introduced in Senate
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WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · S 3509

Overview

  • Bill: S. 3509, Global Climate Resilience Act of 2025
  • Session: 119th Congress (Introduced December 16, 2025)

  • Principal sponsors: Senators Peter Welch (and Andy Kim as co-sponsor)

  • Purpose: To reduce debt owed by developing countries that are vulnerable to extreme weather and slow-onset climate disasters, and to fund and promote resilience, debt-reduction mechanisms, and international climate risk management through U.S. policy and engagement with international financial institutions.

Main purpose and intent

  • Provide debt reduction tools and programs for eligible countries to free up resources for climate resilience.
  • Encourage debt-for-resilience actions, debt buybacks, debt-for-nature/priority resilience swaps, and related mechanisms.
  • Promote international climate risk financing, including a World Bank–led climate insurance program to provide immediate recovery payments after disasters.
  • Align U.S. diplomacy and financial diplomacy with debt relief and resilience objectives through both domestic statutes and international financial institutions.

Key provisions and changes

Section 2: Debt Reduction for Countries Vulnerable to Climate Change

  • Establishes a new Part VI in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 focused on debt reduction for vulnerable countries.
  • Eligibility for benefits (Section 901):
    • Eligible countries include: low income, lower-middle income, or upper-middle income per World Bank classifications, or small island developing states per the United Nations.
    • Eligible governments must be democratically elected and refrain from persistent gross human rights violations.
    • Governments must have a plan to use benefits for resilience activities, preventative disaster risk reduction (including nature-based solutions), or recovery from extreme weather or slow-onset disasters.
  • Congressional notification: The President must notify appropriate committees at least 15 days before determining eligibility.
  • Preferences: Priority given to plans involving local communities and Indigenous peoples and those that address gender, income, and social inequalities.
  • Debt reduction authority:
    • President may reduce debt owed to the United States (or U.S. agencies) for eligible loans.
    • Appropriations authorization as necessary to carry out this subsection.
    • Debt reductions not treated as traditional assistance under other laws; certain restrictions (e.g., Section 620(r) and IDA restrictions) may be bypassed.
    • Methods include exchanging old obligations for new ones, with appropriate notifications and accounting adjustments.
  • Debt-for-resilience swaps and debt buybacks:
    • Authority to sell, reduce, or cancel eligible loans to facilitate debt-for-resilience swaps or to enable purchase of privately owned debt at up to 65% of face value for resilience swaps.
    • Proceeds and accounting: Proceeds may be credited to offsetting collections and used only for costs of resilience activities; funds remain available until expended.
    • Sales and reductions require consultations with the eligible country and must be limited to purchasers with credible plans for resilience swaps.
    • Provisions for debt buybacks where the U.S. can sell or reduce/cancel loans to enable a country to buy back its own debt to support resilience activities.
  • Reporting and oversight:
    • Periodic consultations with Congress.
    • Annual report to Congress by April 15 detailing activities and agreements under this section.

Section 3: Support by International Financial Institutions

  • U.S. representatives to international financial institutions (IFIs) should use the U.S. voice to support debt reduction or restructuring for highly vulnerable countries.
  • Tools encouraged include debt forgiveness, debt buybacks, debt-for-resilience/nature swaps, and other comparable programs.
  • Definitions align with World Bank- and IMF-structured categories for eligible countries.

Section 4: Advocacy for International Climate Insurance at the World Bank

  • U.S. representatives to the World Bank should advocate for a parametric international climate insurance program.
  • Purpose: Provide immediate post-disaster payments to eligible countries and affected groups (small producers, governments) for restoration, recovery, adaptation, and nature-based solutions.

  • Program design elements may include:

    • Eligibility criteria similar to debt-reduction eligibility.
    • Consideration of aggregate disaster risk to adjust premiums.
    • Support for existing climate insurance mechanisms (e.g., Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility).

  • Definitions consistent with prior sections (eligible country, natural disaster, World Bank composition).

Who is affected

  • Eligible countries that are low/lower-middle/upper-middle income or small island developing states, governed democratically, with plans to use funds for resilience and disaster risk reduction.
  • U.S. government agencies administering debt instruments and loan portfolios to these countries.
  • International financial institutions (IFIs) where U.S. influence would be used to promote debt relief and risk financing.
  • Vulnerable populations within eligible countries, including local communities, Indigenous peoples, women, and marginalized groups, through resilience and recovery programs.

Procedural and timeline aspects

  • Introduction and referral to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
  • No enacted dates specified beyond introduction; requires committee action and potential floor consideration.
  • Annual reporting requirement begins after enactment (calendar-year reporting on the prior year’s activities).
  • Ongoing congressional consultation is mandated for the debt-reduction mechanisms and international engagements.

Potential impact

  • Monetary: Enables debt relief options that could free fiscal space for resilience investments in climate-vulnerable nations.
  • Resilience and risk management: Expands funding channels for disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and nature-based solutions.
  • International finance: Leverages U.S. influence in IFIs to pursue debt relief and risk-transfer mechanisms.
  • Domestic oversight: Establishes reporting requirements and congressional notification to ensure transparency and accountability.

Note: This summary reflects the bill text as introduced. If enacted, implementation details would depend on subsequent legislative action, including any amendments, appropriations decisions, and regulatory guidance.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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