[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 194 (Thursday, December 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6881-S6882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



         United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to commemorate the United Nations 
Framework Convention on Climate Change 25th Conference of the Parties, 
or COP25, which is taking place in Madrid until December 12 this year. 
I do so despite the cloud cast by President Trump's announcement of his 
intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
  The Paris Agreement is a landmark effort to reduce global greenhouse 
gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in 
this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels while 
pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.
  The COP meetings now routinely represent the largest multilateral 
diplomatic events in the world. This year's conference is designed to 
take the next critical steps in the U.N. climate change process. 
Following agreements on the implementation guidelines of the Paris 
Agreement COP24 in Poland last year, a key objective is to complete 
several matters with respect to the full operationalization of the 
Paris climate change agreement.
  Article 28 of the Paris Agreement specifies that after joining, no 
country can withdraw for 3 years, after which a 1-year waiting period 
must occur before withdrawal takes effect. The Trump administration 
recklessly filed withdrawal documents on November 4, 2019, making 
November 4, 2020, the earliest possible date the United States can be 
out of the agreement.

[[Page S6882]]

  Withdrawal could not come at a costlier time. In an analysis I 
requested to review the Federal approach to prioritizing and funding 
climate resilience projects that address the Nation's most significant 
climate risks, the Government Accountability Office notes that there 
were at least 14 disasters whose costs exceeded $1 billion each in 2018 
alone.
  GAO, an independent, nonpartisan agency that examines how taxpayer 
dollars are spent and is known as the congressional watchdog, reported 
that the total estimated costs reached at least $91 billion in damage 
to public and private property.
  ``The cost of recent weather disasters has illustrated the need to 
plan for climate change risks and invest in climate resilience,'' the 
report says. ``Investing in climate resilience can reduce the need for 
far more costly steps in the decades to come.''
  The Paris Agreement establishes a global goal on adaptation that 
consists of, one, enhancing adaptation capacity; two, strengthening 
resilience; and three, reducing vulnerability to climate change in the 
context of the temperature goal of the agreement. It aims at 
strengthening the national adaptation efforts, including through 
support and international cooperation. It recognizes that adaptation is 
a global challenge faced by all, including the United States.
  Because U.S. withdrawal will not formally take effect until November 
4, 2020, the U.S. team's posture at COP25 remains largely unchanged. A 
group of dedicated career civil servants will be on the ground.
  Moreover, 2 years ago, numerous U.S. States, cities, Tribal nations, 
businesses, faith groups, universities, and others enhanced their 
presence at major international events, including COP meetings, to 
maintain and encourage American progress toward its national climate 
goals.
  I am proud that nearly 100 Maryland pledgers ``Are Still In.'' They 
comprise dozens of businesses--many small. We have over 10 cities, 6 
counties, cultural institutions, faith and healthcare organizations, 20 
universities, including my alma mater, the University of Maryland 
School of Law in Baltimore, and investors, such as the State treasurer 
of Maryland. They are all still in.
  Members of the Senate ``Are Still In.'' I am proud to be leading 38 
of my colleagues in S. Res. 404. This bipartisan resolution expresses 
the sense of the Senate that the United States should be working in 
cooperation with the international community in continuing to exercise 
global leadership to address the causes and effects of climate change.
  Prior to that, I led a congressional delegation of 10 Senators to 
COP21 that produced the Paris Agreement in 2015. Then the United States 
committed to lowering its contribution of greenhouse gas emissions 26 
to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.
  Business and labor ``are still in.'' In a recent letter, 75 major 
CEOs and organized labor that are represented by the AFL-CIO stressed 
the importance of the Paris Agreement and the need for the United 
States to remain in it. This represents one of the most powerful 
recognitions ever from the private sector of the economic risks and 
opportunities that climate change presents to the United States and the 
world. The December 2, 2019, Joint Labor Union and CEO Statement on the 
Paris Agreement comprises a group of CEOs who employ more than 2 
million people in the United States and union leaders who represent 
more than 12.5 million workers.
  In 2009, at the Copenhagen COP 15, the U.S. helped to drive the 
creation of goals for developed nations to mobilize $100 billion in 
public and private climate finance in 2020. The result was the Green 
Climate Fund, which helps to fund climate finance investment in low 
emissions, climate-resilient development.
  The Paris Agreement affirmed and extended that $100 billion goal. 
Although President Trump has stymied its funding, the fiscal year 2020 
State Department and Foreign Operations bill the Senate Committee on 
Appropriations reported is the most favorable, forward-leaning on 
multilateral climate assistance in years, funding renewable energy 
programs at $179 million and resiliency programs at $177 million. In 
addition, the bill commits $140 million to the Global Environmental 
Facility and $10 million to the U.N. climate convention.
  We must not forget the cooperation President Trump would have us 
forget. On a bipartisan basis, the U.S. Congress has uniformly rejected 
the President's repeated calls to zero out climate assistance funding. 
This rebuke represents the true, cooperative spirit of our country, 
once a global leader on climate issues.
  I urge President Trump to reassert our Nation's strong leadership in 
implementing the Paris Agreement before the next Conference of the 
Parties. In the meantime, I applaud the courage of the general public, 
universities, faith-based groups, nonprofits, labor organizations, 
private sector companies, and State and local governments that have 
helped to step into the void President Trump created by his withdrawal 
from this agreement.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas.