[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 71 (Thursday, April 27, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1425-S1426]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 9--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT 
THERE IS A CLIMATE EMERGENCY WHICH DEMANDS A MASSIVE-SCALE MOBILIZATION 
       TO HALT, REVERSE, AND ADDRESS ITS CONSEQUENCES AND CAUSES

  Mr. SANDERS (for himself, Ms. Warren, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Markey, Mr. 
Booker, and Mr. Welch) submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works:

                             S. Con. Res. 9

       Whereas the 8 warmest years on record have now occurred 
     since 2014, with 2016 as the hottest year recorded, and each 
     of the past 4 decades have been warmer than the one 
     preceding;
       Whereas global atmospheric concentrations of the primary 
     global warming pollutant, carbon dioxide--
       (1) have increased, primarily due to human activities, 
     including the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, by 
     40 percent since preindustrial times, from 280 parts per 
     million to 415 parts per million;
       (2) are rising at a rate of 2 to 3 parts per million 
     annually; and
       (3) must be reduced to not more than 350 parts per million, 
     and likely lower, ``if humanity wishes to preserve a planet 
     similar to that on which civilization developed and to which 
     life on Earth is adapted'', according to former National 
     Aeronautics and Space Administration climatologist Dr. James 
     Hansen;
       Whereas global atmospheric concentrations of other global 
     warming pollutants, including methane, nitrous oxide, and 
     hydrofluorocarbons, have also increased substantially since 
     preindustrial times, primarily due to human activities, 
     including the burning of fossil fuels;
       Whereas climate science and observations of climate change 
     impacts, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, 
     floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather, demonstrate 
     that a global rise in concentrations of global warming 
     pollutants is already having dangerous impacts on human 
     populations and the environment;
       Whereas, with the current 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming 
     above preindustrial levels, the National Oceanic and 
     Atmospheric Administration finds that climate change is 
     already increasing the frequency of extreme weather and other 
     climate-related disasters, including drought, wildfire, and 
     storms that include precipitation;
       Whereas the overall costs of these disasters for the United 
     States in 2022 was roughly $165,000,000,000, the third 
     highest recorded total costs, including 18 separate weather 
     and climate disasters which cost at least $1,000,000,000 each 
     and caused at least 474 direct or indirect known fatalities;
       Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
     finds that there are wide-ranging, acute, and fatal public 
     health consequences from climate change that impact 
     communities across the United States;
       Whereas, according to the National Climate and Health 
     Assessment of the United States Global Change Research 
     Program, climate change is a significant threat to the health 
     of the people of the United States, leading to increased--
       (1) temperature-related deaths and illnesses;
       (2) air quality impacts;
       (3) extreme weather events;
       (4) numbers of vector-borne diseases;
       (5) waterborne illnesses;
       (6) food safety, nutrition, and distribution complications; 
     and
       (7) mental health and well-being concerns;
       Whereas environmental and public health threats from 
     climate change and climate disasters are not randomly 
     distributed and disproportionately affect low-income 
     communities and communities of color;
       Whereas the consequences of climate change are felt most 
     severely by frontline communities and endanger populations 
     made especially vulnerable by existing exposure to extreme 
     weather events, such as children, the elderly, and 
     individuals with pre-existing disabilities and health 
     conditions;
       Whereas individuals and families on the frontlines of 
     climate change across the United States, including 
     territories, living with income inequality and poverty, 
     institutional racism, inequity on the basis of gender and 
     sexual orientation, poor infrastructure, and lack of access 
     to health care, housing, clean water, and food security are 
     often in close proximity to environmental stressors or 
     sources of pollution, particularly communities of color, 
     indigenous communities, and low-income communities, which--
       (1) are often the first exposed to the impacts of climate 
     change;
       (2) experience outsized risk because of the close proximity 
     of the community to environmental hazards and stressors, in 
     addition to collocation with waste and other sources of 
     pollution; and
       (3) have the fewest resources to mitigate those impacts or 
     to relocate, which will exacerbate preexisting challenges;
       Whereas climate change holds grave and immediate 
     consequences not just for the population of the United 
     States, including territories, but for communities across the 
     world, particularly those communities in the Global South on 
     the frontlines of the climate crisis that are at risk of 
     forced displacement;
       Whereas the Department of State, the Department of Defense, 
     and the intelligence community have identified climate change 
     as a threat to national security, and the Department of 
     Homeland Security views climate change as a top national 
     security risk;
       Whereas the climatic changes resulting from global warming 
     above 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, 
     including changes resulting from global warming of more than 
     2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, are projected 
     to result in irreversible, catastrophic changes to public 
     health, livelihoods, quality of life, food security, water 
     supplies, human security, and economic growth;
       Whereas, even with global warming up to 1.5 degrees Celsius 
     above preindustrial levels, the planet is projected to 
     experience--
       (1) a significant rise in sea levels;
       (2) extraordinary loss of biodiversity; and
       (3) intensifying droughts, floods, wildfires, and other 
     extreme weather events;
       Whereas, according to climate scientists, addressing the 
     climate emergency will require a just phase-out of the use of 
     oil, gas, and coal in order to keep the carbon that is the 
     primary constituent of fossil fuels in the ground and out of 
     the atmosphere;
       Whereas, in 2022, some of the largest oil and gas companies 
     in the world reported record annual profits and rewarded 
     shareholders with buybacks while knowingly exacerbating the 
     ongoing climate crisis;
       Whereas the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on 
     Climate Change has determined that limiting warming through 
     emissions reduction and carbon sequestration will require 
     rapid and immediate acceleration and proliferation of ``far-
     reaching, multilevel, and cross-sectoral climate mitigation'' 
     and ``transitions in energy, land, urban and rural 
     infrastructure (including transport and buildings), and 
     industrial systems'';

[[Page S1426]]

       Whereas, in August 2022, the United States took its single 
     most aggressive action to tackle the climate crisis and 
     transition to create renewable energy solutions when Public 
     Law 117-169 (commonly known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 
     2022 and referred to in this preamble as the ``IRA'') was 
     signed into law by President Biden;
       Whereas the IRA includes $369,000,000,000 for energy 
     security and climate change, including investments in 
     disadvantaged communities, projects that repurpose retired 
     fossil fuel infrastructure and employ displaced workers, and 
     setting the United States on course for a renewable energy 
     transition as soon as possible;
       Whereas the IRA creates new environmental justice block 
     grants, establishes renewable energy financing, provides 
     funding for Tribal communities to boost climate resilience, 
     makes it more affordable to purchase energy efficient and 
     electric appliances, incentivizes domestic manufacturing of 
     renewable energy technologies, and will boost the renewable 
     energy economy;
       Whereas the passage of the IRA is projected to reduce 
     global warming emissions in the United States between 31 
     percent to 44 percent below 2005 levels by 2030;
       Whereas the United Nations Environment Programme still 
     found in October 2022 that the existing commitments made in 
     the Nationally Determined Contributions since the 2015 Paris 
     Climate Conference are insufficient to limit warming to 1.5 
     degrees Celsius;
       Whereas urgent governmental action is still required to 
     address the severe environmental, economic, social, public 
     health, and national security threats posed by the climate 
     crisis;
       Whereas the massive scope and scale of action necessary to 
     stabilize the climate will continue to require unprecedented 
     levels of public awareness, engagement, and deliberation to 
     develop and implement effective, just, and equitable policies 
     to address the climate crisis;
       Whereas the United States has a proud history of 
     collaborative, constructive, massive-scale Federal 
     mobilizations of resources and labor in order to solve great 
     challenges, such as the Interstate Highway System, the Apollo 
     11 moon landing, Reconstruction, the New Deal, and World War 
     II;
       Whereas the Constitution of the United States protects the 
     fundamental rights to life, liberty, property, and equal 
     protection of the laws, and a climate system capable of 
     sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered 
     society and the preservation of those fundamental rights;
       Whereas 18 national governments across the world and the 
     European Union have declared a climate emergency, as well as 
     the State of Hawaii and more than 190 cities, counties, and 
     local jurisdictions in the United States;
       Whereas the United States maintains existing resources and 
     international commitments for bilateral and multilateral 
     assistance to support economically emerging countries, 
     including the Green Climate Fund, the Clean Technology Fund, 
     the Adaptation Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund, and 
     the International Sustainable Landscapes programs, which 
     should be supported with robust funding levels;
       Whereas President Biden also maintains existing executive 
     authority under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
     (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 
     181 et seq.), the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 
     U.S.C. 1331 et seq.), the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production 
     Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.), the Federal Water 
     Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.), the various 
     Acts concerning rivers and harbors, the Natural Gas Act (15 
     U.S.C. 717 et seq.), and the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et 
     seq.) that can be used to address the ongoing climate crisis;
       Whereas, under these existing authorities, the President 
     can phase down the rate of fossil fuel production on Federal 
     lands and in Federal waters, limit gas exports, halt approval 
     of new fossil fuel infrastructure projects, establish 
     national limits for greenhouse gases, and decarbonize 
     transportation;
       Whereas a national climate emergency declaration would 
     further unlock the broad powers of the National Emergencies 
     Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), the Defense Production Act of 
     1950 (50 U.S.C. 4501 et seq.), and the Robert T. Stafford 
     Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 
     et seq.);
       Whereas such a declaration can be used to further reduce 
     greenhouse gas emissions, address environmental injustice, 
     invest in large scale mitigation and resiliency projects, 
     create additional jobs with family-sustaining wages and 
     benefits, and ensure a just transition to a renewable energy 
     economy;
       Whereas such a declaration will allow the United States to 
     further mobilize domestic industry, ramp up domestic 
     manufacturing of renewable energy technologies, and deploy 
     resilient energy infrastructure;
       Whereas such a declaration can also reinstate the ban on 
     crude oil exports, suspend offshore fossil fuel leases, curb 
     fossil fuel imports, and stop the hundreds of billions of 
     dollars in investments in fossil fuel projects abroad while 
     taking additional steps toward strengthening our emergency 
     preparedness for thousands of high-risk communities;
       Whereas such a declaration necessitates the adoption of 
     policies and processes rooted in principles of racial equity, 
     self-determination, and democracy, as well as the fundamental 
     human rights of all people to clean air and water, healthy 
     food, and adequate land, education, and shelter, as 
     promulgated in the 1991 Principles of Environmental Justice;
       Whereas frontline communities, Tribal governments and 
     communities, people of color, and labor unions must be 
     equitably and actively engaged in a national climate 
     emergency declaration, in such a way that aligns with the 
     1996 Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing, and 
     prioritized through local climate mitigation and adaptation 
     planning, policy, and program delivery so that workers in the 
     United States, and the communities of those workers, are 
     guaranteed a strong, viable economic future; and
       Whereas the United States has an obligation, as a primary 
     driver of accelerated climate change, to mobilize at 
     emergency speed to ensure the safest climate and environment 
     possible, not just for communities of the United States but 
     for communities across the world, particularly those on the 
     frontlines of the climate crisis which have least contributed 
     to the crisis, and to account for global and community 
     impacts of any actions the United States takes in response to 
     the climate crisis: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) climate change caused by human activities, which 
     increase emissions of greenhouse gases, constitutes a climate 
     emergency that--
       (A) severely and urgently impacts the economic and social 
     well-being, health, safety, and national security of the 
     United States; and
       (B) demands that the President wield both existing 
     authorities and emergency powers to ensure a national, 
     social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the 
     resources and labor of the United States at a massive scale 
     to mitigate and prepare for the consequences of the climate 
     emergency for current and future generations; and
       (2) nothing in this concurrent resolution constitutes a 
     declaration of a national emergency for the purposes of any 
     Act of Congress authorizing the exercise, during the period 
     of a national emergency or other type of declared emergency, 
     of any special or extraordinary power.

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