[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 59 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 59

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Paris 
    Agreement shall have no effect in the United States until it is 
renegotiated to ensure the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases 
   reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and receives the advice and 
          consent to ratification of the United States Senate.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 21, 2021

 Mr. McKinley (for himself, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Comer, 
    Mr. Pfluger, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Latta, Mr. Rouzer, Mr. Barr, Mr. 
Bucshon, Mr. Burgess, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Banks, Mr. Johnson 
of Ohio, and Mr. Moore of Alabama) submitted the following resolution; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Paris 
    Agreement shall have no effect in the United States until it is 
renegotiated to ensure the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases 
   reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and receives the advice and 
          consent to ratification of the United States Senate.

Whereas, on May 9, 1992, the United States Senate provided its advice and 
        consent to ratification regarding the United Nations Framework 
        Convention on Climate Change (``Framework Convention''), which entered 
        into force on March 21, 1994;
Whereas the Framework Convention was ratified under the express limitation 
        ``that a decision by the Conference of the Parties to adopt targets and 
        timetables would have to be submitted to the Senate for its advice and 
        consent'';
Whereas the Kyoto Protocol, completed at the 3d Conference of the Parties 
        (``COP'') to the Framework Convention in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, 
        contains emissions targets and timetables, and was signed by President 
        William Jefferson Clinton on behalf of the United States but never 
        submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification;
Whereas, on July 25, 1997, prior to President William Jefferson Clinton's 
        signing of the Kyoto Protocol, then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., joined 
        his colleagues in the Senate in unanimously passing the Byrd-Hagel 
        Resolution, which expressed congressional disapproval of any 
        international agreement that did not require developing countries to 
        reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and ``would seriously harm the 
        economy of the United States'';
Whereas the COP in Durban, South Africa, agreed to the Durban Platform for 
        Enhanced Action, which charged the Parties with adopting a ``protocol, 
        another legal instrument, or an agreed outcome with legal force'' at the 
        21st COP;
Whereas the Paris Agreement represents the COP's most recent attempt to impose 
        legally binding requirements on all parties to reduce greenhouse gas 
        emissions, as envisioned by the Durban Platform;
Whereas the Paris Agreement ``and every article and clause thereof'' was 
        accepted by President Barack Obama on behalf of the United States solely 
        through executive action, rather than submitted to the Senate for its 
        advice and consent to ratification;
Whereas 178 of the 196 parties to the Paris Agreement, other than the United 
        States, believe it to be a treaty and have formally ratified it through 
        their respective processes;
Whereas mere executive approval of the Paris Agreement does not give it any 
        force of law in the United States and cannot be used to justify 
        regulation;
Whereas implementation of the Paris Agreement, absent the advice and consent to 
        ratification of the United States Senate, would require pursuing 
        unilateral and punitive regulatory policies harmful to United States 
        economic competitiveness, including significant job loss, increased 
        energy and consumer costs, risks to grid reliability, or any combination 
        thereof;
Whereas when originally negotiating the Paris Agreement, incoming Special 
        Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry stated, ``if . . . all the 
        industrial nations went down to zero emissions, it wouldn't be enough, 
        not when more than 65 percent of the world's carbon pollution comes from 
        the developing world'';
Whereas the Paris Agreement continues to treat the People's Republic of China, 
        the world's second largest economy and largest emitter of greenhouse 
        gasses, as a ``developing country'', and therefore enables this nation 
        to continue to pursue energy and industrial policies that undermine the 
        economic interests of the United States and its citizens;
Whereas to protect the interests of the United States and its citizens, prior to 
        its submission to the United States Senate for its advice and consent to 
        ratification, the Paris Agreement should be renegotiated to ensure the 
        People's Republic of China and other of the world's largest emitters of 
        greenhouse gases, including the Republic of India and the Russian 
        Federation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a pace and scale 
        equivalent to that of the United States, members of the European Union, 
        and other advanced nations;
Whereas, between 1990 and 2018, global carbon dioxide emissions grew by 62 
        percent despite nearly 30 years of international climate agreements;
Whereas the emissions reduction goals of the Paris Agreement cannot be met 
        without the development and global deployment of affordable energy 
        technologies, including storage, nuclear, and clean fossil technologies, 
        as well as commercial-scale carbon, capture, utilization, and storage 
        technologies;
Whereas development and deployment of these technologies to meet the needs of 
        nations striving to improve human welfare cannot take place under 
        regulatory and legal regimes that stifle American economic growth and 
        prosperity;
Whereas the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement, pursuant to the 
        terms of the Agreement, which President Donald J. Trump first announced 
        on June 1, 2017, and took effect on November 4, 2020; and
Whereas, on January 20, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., signed an 
        Executive order to reenter the Paris Agreement: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
until the Paris Agreement is renegotiated to ensure the world's largest 
emitters of greenhouse gases reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, 
submitted to the United States Senate for its advice and consent to 
ratification, and subsequently approved by the United States Senate 
exercising its article II responsibilities--
            (1) the Paris Agreement shall not have the force or effect 
        of a treaty;
            (2) none of its provisions are binding on the United States 
        in any way;
            (3) executive emissions pledges made under the Paris 
        Agreement on behalf of the United States shall have no effect 
        and are not binding;
            (4) the Paris Agreement cannot be used as the legal basis 
        for regulation; and
            (5) Congress should refuse to consider any budget 
        resolutions and appropriations language that include funding 
        for the Green Climate Fund or any affiliated body or financing 
        mechanism.
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