[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 173 (Thursday, October 31, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6344-S6346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 404--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
    UNITED STATES SHOULD WORK IN COOPERATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL 
  COMMUNITY AND CONTINUE TO EXERCISE GLOBAL LEADERSHIP TO ADDRESS THE 
      CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

  Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Schatz, Mr. 
Markey, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Udall,

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Mr. Blumenthal, Mrs. Shaheen, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Reed, 
Mr. Coons, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Booker, Ms. Warren, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Brown, 
Mr. Carper, Ms. Stabenow, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kaine, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. 
Klobuchar, Ms. Harris, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Murphy, Ms. Smith, 
Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Warner, and Ms. Hassan) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 404

       Whereas the consensus among climatologists and scientists 
     studying the effects of atmospheric change, including the 
     Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National 
     Academy of Science, the United States Geological Survey, the 
     National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 
     National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and 
     other agencies within the United States Global Change 
     Research Program, have determined that the impact of climate 
     change will include widespread effects on health and welfare, 
     including increased outbreaks from waterborne diseases, more 
     droughts, diminished agricultural production, severe storms 
     and floods, heat waves, wildfires, and a substantial rise in 
     global sea levels;
       Whereas the objective of the 1992 United Nations Framework 
     Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to stabilize 
     greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level 
     that will prevent dangerous human interference with the 
     climate system;
       Whereas, under the UNFCCC, the United States is obligated 
     to report its progress on reducing emissions;
       Whereas the Senate provided its advice and consent to the 
     UNFCCC by division, with two-thirds of Senators present 
     voting in the affirmative, on October 7, 1992;
       Whereas, in 2011, at the 17th Conference of the Parties 
     (COP 17) to the UNFCCC in Durban, South Africa, parties 
     agreed to negotiate an agreement by the end of 2015 to reduce 
     emissions in the post-2020 period;
       Whereas the UNFCCC calls on parties to submit intended 
     nationally determined contributions outlining voluntary 
     individual targets for emissions reductions by the time 
     parties convened in Paris on November 30, 2015, for the 21st 
     Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UNFCCC;
       Whereas, prior to completing the multilateral Paris 
     Agreement on international cooperation to address climate 
     change, done at Paris December 12, 2015, 187 nations, 
     representing more than 97 percent of global greenhouse gas 
     emissions, voluntarily submitted nationally determined goals 
     and plans to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution;
       Whereas, according to research and data analysis conducted 
     independently by NOAA, NASA, the Met Office Hadley Centre for 
     Climate Science and Services of the United Kingdom, the Japan 
     Meteorological Agency, and Berkeley Earth, each of the years 
     2014 through 2018 rank among the five warmest years on 
     record;
       Whereas, according to NASA, 18 of the 19 warmest years on 
     record have occurred since 2000;
       Whereas, according to NOAA, 2019 will likely be the second 
     warmest year on record, making the last six years the warmest 
     years on record;
       Whereas the United States-China Joint Announcement on 
     Climate Change of November 2014 included a United States goal 
     to reduce its emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 
     2025 and a Chinese goal to peak emissions output by 2030 and 
     increase the use of non-fossil fuels to 20 percent of its 
     overall energy portfolio by 2030;
       Whereas, under the United States-India Joint Announcement 
     on Climate and Clean Energy of January 2015, the two 
     countries pledged to increase cooperation on clean energy 
     financing and development and India committed to phase out 
     use of hydrofluorocarbons and increase promotion of energy 
     efficiency tools and reaffirmed its commitment to add 100 
     gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022;
       Whereas small island states, whose people are among the 
     most vulnerable to climate change, are threatened with 
     partial or virtually total inundation by imminent rises in 
     sea level and increased intensity and frequency of storms;
       Whereas United States international leadership on the 
     global stage throughout the United Nations Framework 
     Convention on Climate Change's 21st Conference of Parties 
     process resulted in unprecedented international cooperation 
     and engagement on the development of the Paris Agreement;
       Whereas the Paris Agreement received consensus approval 
     from the more than 190 delegates to the United Nations 
     Framework Convention on Climate Change's 21st Conference of 
     Parties;
       Whereas the Paris Agreement reached its thresholds for 
     entry into force faster than any other multilateral 
     international agreement of comparable size and scope;
       Whereas, as of the date of introduction of this resolution, 
     187 of the 197 parties to the Paris Agreement have officially 
     joined the agreement, demonstrating the urgency and 
     importance the global community places on addressing climate 
     change;
       Whereas studies conducted by the NASA Earth Observatory 
     determined that as the oceans have warmed, polar ice has 
     melted and porous landmasses have subsided, global mean sea 
     level has risen by 8 inches (20 centimeters) since 1870, and 
     the rate of sea level rise is faster now than at any time in 
     the past 2,000 years, having doubled in the past two decades, 
     putting 55 to 60 percent of United States citizens who live 
     in counties touching the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, the Gulf 
     of Mexico, or the Great Lakes at risk from the effects of sea 
     level rise;
       Whereas the Department of Defense has identified climate 
     change as a ``threat multiplier'' that will increase global 
     instability and conflict, with the potential to increase 
     terrorism;
       Whereas the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review states that 
     ``[t]he impacts of climate change may increase the frequency, 
     scale, and complexity of future missions, including defense 
     support to civil authorities, while at the same time 
     undermining the capacity of our domestic installations to 
     support training activities,'' and notes that--
       (1) climate change may exacerbate water scarcity and lead 
     to sharp increases in food costs;
       (2) the pressures caused by climate change will influence 
     resource competition while placing additional burdens on 
     economies, societies, and governance institutions around the 
     world; and
       (3) these effects are threat multipliers that will 
     aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental 
     degradation, political instability, and social tensions--
     conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms 
     of violence;
       Whereas the Department of Defense report, ``National 
     Security Implications of Climate-Related Risks and a Changing 
     Climate''--
       (1) states that global climate change will have wide-
     ranging implications for United States national security 
     interests over the foreseeable future because it will 
     aggravate existing problems, such as poverty, social 
     tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, 
     and weak political institutions, that threaten domestic 
     stability in a number of countries; and
       (2) identifies four general areas of climate-related risks: 
     persistently recurring conditions such as flooding, drought, 
     and higher temperatures; more frequent and more severe 
     extreme weather events; sea level rise and temperature 
     changes; and decreases in Arctic ice cover, type, and 
     thickness;
       Whereas the Director of National Intelligence's 2017 Global 
     Trends Report determined that--
       (1) changes in the climate will produce more extreme 
     weather events and put greater stress on humans and critical 
     systems, including oceans, freshwater, and biodiversity;
       (2) these changes, in turn, will have direct and indirect 
     social, economic, political, and security effects; and
       (3) extreme weather can trigger crop failures, wildfires, 
     energy blackouts, infrastructure breakdown, supply chain 
     breakdowns, migration, and infectious disease outbreaks, and 
     will be more pronounced as people concentrate in climate 
     vulnerable locations, such as cities, coastal areas, and 
     water-stressed regions;
       Whereas the Department of Agriculture has determined that 
     climate change is likely to diminish continued progress on 
     global food security through production disruptions that lead 
     to local availability limitations and price increases, 
     interrupted transport conduits, and diminished food safety, 
     among other causes;
       Whereas, according to the World Bank, approximately 
     1,600,000,000 people currently live in countries and regions 
     with absolute water scarcity and the number is expected to 
     rise to 2,800,000,000 people by 2025 due to the effects of 
     climate change;
       Whereas a 2018 special report of the Intergovernmental 
     Panel on Climate Change on the impacts of global warming of 
     1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and related 
     global greenhouse gas emission pathways found with ``high 
     confidence'', in the context of strengthening the global 
     response to the threat of climate change, sustainable 
     development, and efforts to eradicate poverty, that--
       (1) human activities are estimated to have caused 
     approximately 1.0 degree Celsius of global warming above pre-
     industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8 degrees Celsius 
     to 1.2 degrees Celsius;
       (2) global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius 
     between 2030 and 2052 if global warming continues to increase 
     at the current rate; and
       (3) climate-related risks for natural and human systems are 
     higher for global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius than at 
     present, but lower than at 2 degrees Celsius; and

       Whereas the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) 
     completed in November 2018, developed by the United States 
     Global Change Research Program, in collaboration and 
     cooperation with 13 Federal agencies, ``to advance 
     understanding of the changing Earth system and maximize 
     efficiencies in Federal global change research''--
       (1) concludes that--
          (A) the evidence of human-caused climate change is 
     overwhelming and continues to strengthen;
          (B) the impacts of climate change are intensifying 
     across the United States;
          (C) climate-related threats to the physical, social, and 
     economic well-being of the United States are rising; and
          (D) ``[t]he impacts and costs of climate change are 
     already being felt in the United States, and changes in the 
     likelihood or severity of some recent extreme weather

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     events can now be attributed with increasingly higher 
     confidence to human-caused warming''; and
       (2) includes summary findings that--
          (A) the quality and quantity of water available for use 
     by people and ecosystems across the United States are being 
     affected by climate change, increasing risks and costs to 
     agriculture, energy production, industry, recreation, and the 
     environment;
          (B) impacts from climate change on extreme weather and 
     climate-related events, air quality, and the transmission of 
     disease through insects and pests, food, and water 
     increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the people 
     of the United States, particularly vulnerable populations;
          (C) climate change increasingly threatens the 
     livelihoods, economies, health, and cultural identities of 
     indigenous communities by disrupting interconnected social, 
     physical, and ecological systems;
          (D) the aging and deteriorating infrastructure of the 
     United States is further stressed by increases in heavy 
     precipitation events, coastal flooding, heat, wildfires, and 
     other extreme events, as well as changes to average 
     precipitation and temperature; and
          (E) without adaptation, climate change will continue to 
     degrade infrastructure performance over the rest of the 
     century, with the potential for cascading impacts that 
     threaten the economy, national security, and essential 
     services of the United States and the health and well-being 
     of the United States people: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the 
     United States should--
       (1) work in cooperation with the international community 
     and continue to exercise global leadership in our shared 
     responsibilities, including holding parties accountable for 
     meeting their commitments, and address the causes and effects 
     of climate change;
       (2) remain party to the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC;
       (3) reassert strong leadership in implementing the Paris 
     Agreement;
       (4) as acknowledged in the Nationally Determined 
     Contribution submitted by the United States to the UNFCCC in 
     2015, take action to substantially accelerate the current 
     pace of greenhouse gas emission reductions in order to 
     achieve, or surpass, the emissions reduction target of the 
     United States;
       (5) ensure that the development of the policies and 
     procedures prescribed by the Paris Agreement achieve maximum 
     benefits for the United States; and
       (6) implement its commitments under the Paris Agreement and 
     the UNFCCC.

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