Climate Solutions Act of 2019
A BILL
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the climate.
2. Findings; sense of Congress
Findings— The Congress finds as follows:
The United States has the objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference” with the climate system as demonstrated by becoming a party to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, pledging to China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 28 percent of their 2005 levels by 2025, and regulating greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources, mobile sources, and electrical power suppliers.
To achieve this objective, the increase in global mean surface temperature should not exceed 2°C (3.6°F) above preindustrial temperature by 2100 consistent with the Paris Agreement that entered into force in 2016.
The risks associated with a temperature increase above 2°C (3.6°F) are grave, including the disintegration of the Greenland ice sheet, which, if it were to melt completely, would raise global average sea level by approximately 23 feet, devastating many of the world’s coastal areas and population centers.
A 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change demonstrated that limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C will result in still harmful, but significantly less severe outcomes than a 2°C increase.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that temperatures will rise 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052. In order to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C, global net anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions must reach net zero by 2050.
The 2018 National Climate Assessment, authored by more than 300 experts and released by the United States Global Change Research Program, makes clear that the present unprecedented rises in global temperature are primarily due to human activities. The changing climate will devastate all sectors of society and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable communities.
Serious global warming impacts have already been observed in the United States and worldwide, including—
increases in heat waves and other extreme weather events;
rise in sea level, retreat of glaciers and polar ice;
decline in mountain snowpack, increased drought (including droughts in the West and South United States) resulting in damage to our economy and property;
extreme weather conditions resulting in wildfires, stronger hurricanes, and polar vortex occurrences resulting in further damage to property and our economy;
damage to our environment such as ocean acidification, extensive coral bleaching, migrations, and shifts in the yearly cycles of plants and animals; and
effects on human population, including population displacement and adverse health effects such as the spread of infectious diseases and climate-related conditions such as asthma.
Scientists project that under a midrange estimate of global warming, by 2050, roughly 25 percent of animal and plant species will be committed to extinction.
After remaining steady from 2014 to 2016, global carbon dioxide emissions increased 1.6 percent in 2017.
Decisive action is needed to minimize the many dangers posed by global warming.
The timing of such action is critical, given that greenhouse gases can persist in the atmosphere for more than a century.
With less than 5 percent of the world population, the United States emits approximately 15 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions and must be a leader in addressing global warming.
The State of California, the 5th largest economy in the world, has shown that renewable energy standards and greenhouse gas emissions regulation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while fostering significant economic growth.
Existing energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy technologies can reduce global warming pollution, while saving consumers money, reducing our dependence on oil, enhancing national security, cleaning the air, and protecting pristine places from drilling and mining.
Sense of Congress— It is the sense of the Congress that the United States should participate in negotiations under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and honor its commitments therefrom with the objective of securing and continuing United States participation in agreements, including the Paris Agreement that the United States accepted on September 3, 2016, and took effect on November 4, 2016, that—
establish mitigation commitments by all countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases, consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities;
achieve reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions at a pace and level sufficient to avoid dangerous interference with the Earth’s climate; and
advance and protect the economic and national security interests of the United States.