[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S610-S612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
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SENATE RESOLUTION 30--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE
NEED FOR THE UNITED STATES TO ADDRESS GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH THE
NEGOTIATION OF FAIR AND EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS
Mr. BIDEN (for himself and Mr. Lugar) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 30
Whereas there is a scientific consensus, as established by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and confirmed
by the National Academy of Sciences, that the continued
buildup of anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
threatens the stability of the global climate;
Whereas there are significant long-term risks to the
economy and the environment of the United States from the
temperature increases and climatic disruptions that are
projected to result from increased greenhouse gas
concentrations;
Whereas the potential impacts of global climate change,
including long-term drought, famine, mass migration, and
abrupt climatic shifts, may lead to international tensions
and instability in regions affected
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and, therefore, have implications for the national security
interests of the United States;
Whereas the United States has the largest economy in the
world and is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases;
Whereas the greenhouse gas emissions of the United States
are projected to continue to rise;
Whereas the greenhouse gas emissions of developing
countries are rising more rapidly than the emissions of the
United States and will soon surpass the greenhouse gas
emissions of the United States and other developed countries;
Whereas reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the levels
necessary to avoid serious climatic disruption requires the
introduction of new energy technologies and other climate-
friendly technologies, the use of which results in low or no
emissions of greenhouse gases or in the capture and storage
of greenhouse gases;
Whereas the development and sale of climate-friendly
technologies in the United States and internationally present
economic opportunities for workers and businesses in the
United States;
Whereas climate-friendly technologies can improve air
quality by reducing harmful pollutants from stationary and
mobile sources and can enhance energy security by reducing
reliance on imported oil, diversifying energy sources, and
reducing the vulnerability of energy delivery infrastructure;
Whereas other industrialized countries are undertaking
measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which provides
the industries in those countries with a competitive
advantage in the growing global market for climate-friendly
technologies;
Whereas efforts to limit emissions growth in developing
countries in a manner that is consistent with the development
needs of those countries could establish significant markets
for climate-friendly technologies and contribute to
international efforts to address climate change;
Whereas the United States Climate Change Science Program
launched by President George W. Bush concluded in April 2006
that there is no longer a discrepancy between the rates of
global average temperature increase observed at the Earth's
surface and in the atmosphere, strengthening the scientific
evidence that human activity contributes significantly to
global temperature increases;
Whereas President Bush, in the State of the Union Address
given in January 2006, called on the United States to reduce
its ``addiction'' to oil and focus its attention on
developing cleaner, renewable, and sustainable energy
sources;
Whereas President Bush has launched the Asia-Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate to cooperatively
develop new and cleaner energy technologies and promote their
use in fast-developing nations like India and China;
Whereas the national security of the United States will
increasingly depend on the deployment of diplomatic,
military, scientific, and economic resources toward solving
the problem of the overreliance of the United States and the
world on high-carbon energy;
Whereas the United States is a party to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, done at New York May
9, 1992, and entered into force in 1994 (hereinafter referred
to as the ``Convention'');
Whereas, at the December 2005 United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Montreal, Canada, parties to the Convention,
with the concurrence of the United States, initiated a new
dialogue on long-term cooperative action to address climate
change;
Whereas the Convention sets a long-term objective of
stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system;
Whereas the Convention establishes that parties bear common
but differentiated responsibilities for efforts to achieve
the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations;
Whereas an effective global effort to address climate
change must provide for commitments and action by all
countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases,
developed and developing alike, and the widely varying
circumstances among the developed and developing countries
may require that such commitments and action vary; and
Whereas the United States has the capability to lead the
effort to counter global climate change: Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the
United States should act to reduce the health, environmental,
economic, and national security risks posed by global climate
change and foster sustained economic growth through a new
generation of technologies, by--
(1) participating in negotiations under the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, done at New York May
9, 1992, and entered into force in 1994, and leading efforts
in other international fora, with the objective of securing
United States participation in binding agreements that--
(A) advance and protect the economic and national security
interests of the United States;
(B) establish mitigation commitments by all countries that
are major emitters of greenhouse gases, consistent with the
principle of common but differentiated responsibilities;
(C) establish flexible international mechanisms to minimize
the cost of efforts by participating countries; and
(D) achieve a significant long-term reduction in global
greenhouse gas emissions; and
(2) establishing a bipartisan Senate observer group, the
members of which shall be designated by the chairman and
ranking member of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the
Senate, to--
(A) monitor any international negotiations on climate
change; and
(B) ensure that the advice and consent function of the
Senate is exercised in a manner to facilitate timely
consideration of any applicable treaty submitted to the
Senate.
Mr. BIDEN. President, the climate has changed. It has changed outside
these walls: the year just concluded was the warmest on record in the
United States. And the climate has changed in the halls of the Senate,
where the causes and consequences of global warming--and how we should
respond--will be a major concern of this new Congress.
Outside, the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere has
grown from 280 parts per million before the Industrial Revolution to
430 parts per million today. We are on a path that could double the
pre-industrial levels of greenhouse gases, threatening an increase of
as much as 10 degrees in the next century.
The physical consequences of global warming are right before our
eyes: the shrinking polar ice cap, retreating glaciers, stronger storms
driven by warmer ocean waters, changing growing seasons, animal
migration, and rainfall patterns. Future consequences if we continue
business as usual will include rising sea levels, the spread of
diseases, abrupt climate shifts that could shut down the Atlantic cycle
that warms Europe, or shrink the Amazon rainforest, which provides
twenty percent of the oxygen we breathe.
These changes will profoundly alter the assumptions on which the
economic, political, and security arrangements of our world have been
constructed. Our national borders, our cities, our cultures, are all
built around patterns of rainfall, arable land, and coastlines that
will be redrawn as global warming proceeds. By one estimate, 200
million people, in the coastal cities of New York, Tokyo, Cairo, and
London, in low-lying countries such as Bangladesh, in the islands of
the Pacific and Caribbean, could be permanently displaced by climate
shifts.
Throughout human history, massive population shifts, frustrated
expectations, and the collapse of economies, have all led to conflict.
Even the richest nations, source of the emissions behind global
warming, will face huge costs coping with those catastrophes. The
poorest nations, whose economies have contributed little or nothing to
the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, will be hit the worst, and will
have the fewest resources with which to respond. This is a recipe for
global resource wars, and even greater resentment of our wealth by
those less fortunate--a new world disorder.
Weare failing in our responsibility to steward the riches we have
inherited. We are bequeathing our children not just a ruined landscape,
but a world of conflict as well.
This is a classic tragedy of the commons. We have treated our
atmosphere as a costless dump for the waste gases that are the
byproduct of our great wealth. There was a time when we could plead
ignorance. That day is past. The science is now clear. There was a time
when we might have claimed the cost of changing our ways was too great.
That day is past. We now know the costs of inaction are unacceptably
high. There was a time when we could claim that our actions, in
isolation, would be ineffective. That day is past. It is now clear that
our inaction reduces the effectiveness of international efforts to
address climate change, and provides an excuse for China, India,
Mexico, Brazil, and the other leading emitters of the future to stay
with us on the sidelines.
Today, I am joining with my friend Senator Dick Lugar to submit this
resolution, to put the Senate on record in support of a return of the
United States to a leadership role in the international search for
solutions to the problem of global warming.
Our resolution calls for United States participation in negotiations
under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change--signed
by the first President Bush--that will protect the economic and
security interests of the
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United States, and that will commit all nations--developed and
developing--that are major emitters of greenhouse gases to achieve
significant long-term reductions in those emissions. The resolution
also calls for a bipartisan Senate observer group to monitor talks and
ensure that our negotiators bring back agreements that all Americans
can support.
With the glaring exception of the United States, the major industrial
nations of the world are proceeding with their commitments, under the
Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention, to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions an average of seven percent below 1990 levels. The period
from 2008 through 2012 will test their ability to meet those
commitments, which were first negotiated in 1997. It is past time for
us to begin the discussions that can lead to the next steps, beyond the
Kyoto date of 2012. Those next steps must not only include the United
States, the leading historical source of greenhouse gases. They must
include those nations who will soon overtake us in that role, those who
will be the leading emitters in 2012.
The Biden-Lugar Resolution states that the evidence of the human role
in global warming is clear, that the environmental, economic, and
security effects will be costly, and that the response must be
international. The resolution recognizes that there are real economic
benefits from both reducing the waste and inefficiencies inherent in
greenhouse gas emissions, and from the markets for new, climate-
friendly technologies. Most importantly it puts the Senate on record,
calling for the United States to resume its role as leader in the
international effort to address this global threat.
I personally believe that the single most important step we can take
to resume a leadership role in international climate change efforts
would be to make real progress toward a domestic emissions reduction
regime. For too long we have abdicated the responsibility to reduce our
own emissions, the largest single source of the problem we face today.
We have the world's largest economy, with the highest per capita
emissions. Rather than leading by example, we have retreated from
international negotiations.
In this Congress we will see renewed efforts to pass legislation to
create that regime, to reduce our domestic emissions, and to open our
many responsible American businesses to both international emissions
trading and the new markets for clean technologies in the developing
world. Moving toward that goal will be crucial to the effectiveness and
credibility of our international efforts.
We are all on this planet together. We cannot protect ourselves from
the effects of climate change by acting alone--this is a global problem
that will require a global solution. To undertake meaningful
reductions, countries will need to know that their actions will not be
undercut by ``free riders'' who continue business as usual while they
commit to change. To build that trust will require commitments by all
of the key players, and the institutions to coordinate the actions of
independent nations.
With this resolution, Senator Lugar and I want to put the Senate on
record in support of a new effort to build that trust, to make those
commitments, to participate in a coordinated international effort to
confront the real threat of climate change.
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