WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, introduced a new resolution (S.Res 404) Thursday that calls for the United States to remain in the Paris climate agreement. Joining Cardin to introduce the resolution were Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.).
Monday, November 4 is the first day President Donald Trump can formalize his threat to withdraw the United States from this historic international agreement. Parties to the Paris Agreement pledged to reduce carbon pollution in an amount and manner determined by each nation that puts the world on a strong trajectory to address climate change.
With an understanding that the Paris Agreement allows the United States to set how much it would reduce pollution and how it would meet these self-determined goals, the resolution opens with a sense of the Senate that the United States should “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.” It also encourages the development of domestic policies to achieve greenhouse gas emission cuts as outlined by the Paris Agreement and “achieve maximum benefits for the United States” by implementing its commitments under the agreement.
“U.S. leadership played a critical role in bringing the international community together for the purpose of combatting climate change and we must remain a leader at the table as the world joins together to face this grave challenge. Our resolution implores the president to restore America’s global leadership on climate by keeping us in the Paris Agreement. It outlines the urgency of putting our country back on a path of science-based actions that support our economic security, national security and public health,” said Senator Cardin, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Environment and Public Works committees, who led a delegation of 10 senators to the COP21 Paris Climate Conference in 2015.
“President Trump has tried—and thankfully failed—to derail the world’s unity to fight climate change. Today 195 countries other than the U.S. are committed to the Paris Agreement. Hundreds of businesses, cities and states across our country are treating climate change as a real, ever-growing threat—and leading the march to clean energy while cutting climate pollution. And as millions of young people are raising their voices worldwide, demanding assertive action today to protect them from climate catastrophe tomorrow, we commend the Democratic and Republican members in the United States Senate for demonstrating solidarity with them through this resolution,” said Jake Schmidt, managing director of the International Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The full text of S. Res. 404 can be found here.
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