[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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