Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States is committed to ensuring a safe and healthy climate for future generations, and thus to restoring the climate.

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States is committed to ensuring a safe and healthy climate for future generations, and thus to restoring the climate.

Whereas humanity has an obligation to future generations to restore and maintain a safe climate that ensures our long-term survival;

Whereas, prior to the industrial revolution, humans have never lived with a sustained atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration above 300 parts per million (ppm);

Whereas today’s atmospheric CO2 concentration is approximately 420 ppm, 50 percent higher than in preindustrial times, resulting in destructive impacts on climate, agriculture, the environment, human health, and economies around the world;

Whereas the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change set its climate goal to stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in 1992, when the atmospheric CO2 concentration was 350 ppm, which is the maximum level theorized to sustain the ecosystems to which humans have adapted;

Whereas, in this resolution, “climate restoration” refers to—

(1) the goal of restoring the atmospheric CO2 concentration to that which humans have survived long-term, (below 300 ppm); and

(2) actions required to achieve that concentration;

Whereas climate restoration is a crucial complement to rapid and deep emissions reductions;

Whereas climate restoration by 2050, will require removing approximately 1,000,000,000,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, or net 50,000,000,000 tons per year for 20 years;

Whereas, approximately 1,000,000,000,000 tons of CO2 were removed from the atmosphere by natural processes 10 times in the last 1,000,000 years, and naturally occurring mechanisms are capable of removing geologically significant amounts of atmospheric CO2, including carbon sequestration by the ocean carbon biological pump;

Whereas scientists and technologists have developed and demonstrated CO2 sequestration methods that replicate and leverage these natural processes in ways that significantly reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations;

Whereas Congress should encourage investigation and investment in CO2 removal methods and technologies that leverage existing natural processes, as well as other technologies;

Whereas, in addition to CO2 removal, restoring the Earth’s energy balance relies on reducing feedback loops that negatively affect surface albedo, global ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns, and cloud cover;

Whereas removing methane and other short-lived climate pollutants from the atmosphere between now and 2030 is essential as a bridge to achieving longer term climate restoration;

Whereas climate restoration will benefit the people of the United States by reducing loss and damage from heat waves, floods, storms, droughts, wildfires, and other disasters exacerbated by climate change, while producing positive effects on human and ecosystem health, along with benefiting the economy as a whole;

Whereas climate restoration is a precondition for intergenerational climate justice, as young people will suffer the worst effects of climate breakdown;

Whereas the urgent action needed to restore a safe climate is consistent with H. Res. 975, introduced in 2022, and H. Res. 259, introduced in 2023, which are resolutions that recognize the mental health impacts of recurrent climate-related disasters on youth, a group especially vulnerable to the physical and mental health impacts of climate-related disasters, and the far greater suffering young people and future generations will endure if the climate continues to worsen; and

Whereas, on July 3, 2023, the California Senate passed SR–34, becoming the first State to pass a resolution formally recognizing an obligation to future generations to restore the atmospheric CO2 concentration to a safe level, below 300 ppm, and calling for action by the Federal Government, in the form of an international climate treaty, to restore and stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations as a common climate goal: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress—

(1) formally recognizes its obligation to future generations to restore a safe climate;

(2) declares that climate restoration, along with achieving net-zero CO2 emissions, are climate policy priorities; and

(3) calls on the President, Secretary of State, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations to take actions that will restore the climate and stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at preindustrial levels.