United States Climate Leadership in International Mitigation, Adaptation, and Technology Enhancement Act of 2021
A BILL
To restore the United States international leadership on climate change and clean energy, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings; sense of Congress
Findings— Congress finds the following:
The Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5°C, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on October 8, 2018, and the Fourth National Climate Assessment, first published by the United States Global Change Research Program in 2018, concluded that—
the release of greenhouse gas emissions, most notably the combustion of fossil fuels and the degradation of natural resources that absorb atmospheric carbon from human activity, are the dominant causes of climate change during the past century; and
changes in the Earth’s climate are—
causing sea levels to rise;
increasing the global average temperature of the Earth;
increasing the incidence and severity of wildfires; and
intensifying the severity of extreme weather, including hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, flooding, droughts, and other disasters that threaten human life, healthy communities, and critical infrastructure.
An increase in the global average temperature of 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrialized levels would cause—
the displacement, and the forced internal migration, of an estimated 143,000,000 people in Latin America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 if insufficient action is taken (according to the World Bank); and
the displacement of an average of 17,800,000 people worldwide by floods every year (according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre) because of the exacerbating effects of climate change;
more than $500,000,000,000 in lost annual economic output in the United States (a 10 percent contraction from 2018 levels) by 2100 (according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment); and
an additional 100,000,000 people worldwide to be driven into poverty by 2030 (according to the World Bank);
greater food insecurity and decreased agricultural production due to climate change’s effects on the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events; and
the proliferation of agricultural pests and crop diseases, loss of biodiversity, degrading ecosystems, and water scarcity (according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization); and
more than 350,000,000 additional people worldwide to be exposed to deadly heat stress by 2050.
According to the International Monetary Fund, a persistent annual increase in average global temperature of .04 degrees Celsius would reduce global real gross domestic product per capita by 7.22 percent by 2100.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, climate change is exacerbating unusual regional weather conditions, which is driving the current and prolonged desert locust outbreak that is threatening food security across East Africa and Southeast Asia.
According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services—
an increase in the global average temperature of between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius will result in a significant reduction in the worldwide number of land species;
an increase in the global average temperature of 2 degrees Celsius—
will place 5 percent of world’s species at risk of extinction; and
will result in the destruction of more than 99 percent of all coral reefs worldwide; and
an increase in the global average temperature of 4.3 degrees Celsius will place 16 percent of world’s terrestrial species at risk of extinction.
According to the International Energy Agency, the United States, China, India, and the European Union (including the United Kingdom) account for more than 58 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
China, which is the world’s top greenhouse gases emitter and has an outsized impact on the United States core interest in climate stability—
is likely to achieve its carbon emissions mitigation pledge to the Paris Agreement, contained in its 2015 nationally determined contribution, to “peak” emissions around 2030 ahead of schedule;
announced, on September 22, 2020, a pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060; and
has yet to announce an updated nationally determined contribution.
On October 26, 2020, Japan, the world’s third largest economy and fifth greatest carbon emitter, announced a pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Despite apprehension about growing nuclear energy sources, Japan aims to increase its share of renewable and nuclear energy following new targets unveiled next year.
India has met its growing energy demands by becoming a global leader in renewable energy generation. Despite significant investments in renewable energy, and the implementation of strong national greenhouse gas mitigation policies, India continues to operate some of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel power plants and has high emissions generated from its transportation sector. India is a critical market for foreign investment and will be a major competitor in international clean energy development futures.
India’s leadership within the Clean Energy Ministerial, the Mission Innovation initiative, and the International Solar Alliance has put India at the forefront of renewable energy development and helped India achieve a top 5 global rank among clean energy producers. Installed electricity capacity from renewables in India grew by 144 percent between 2014 and 2020. Approximately $42,000,000,000 was invested into India’s renewable energy sector between 2014 and 2019.
The European Union demonstrated its strong commitment to climate action by making the ambitious pledge to reduce the collective greenhouse gas emissions of its 27 member nations by at least 55 percent by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The European Parliament went even further, voting to reduce its collective economy wide greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels). These commitments represent substantial improvements from the previous goal of a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The European Union’s member nations have also provided the equivalent of approximately $120,000,000,000 between 2014 and 2020 in support and financing to build climate change resilience and develop low carbon energy capacity throughout the developing world.
The European Union has traditionally been a steadfast partner with United States in the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change by pushing for improved accountability, transparency, and shared responsibility among parties in mitigating global greenhouse gas emissions. As the United States Government’s executive branch has pulled away from climate action commitments, the European Union has increased its cooperation with coalitions of States through partnerships such as the United States Climate Alliance.
Among the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters, the United States is the only country that—
has rescinded national policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
has advanced policies aimed at bolstering fossil fuel consumption and extraction, including through the removal of Federal protections of public lands that are critical wilderness areas vital to maintaining healthy natural ecosystems; and
has abstained or withdrawn itself from several global cooperative efforts acknowledging and addressing the climate crisis.
United States leadership during deliberations over the Paris Agreement—
was exemplified by—
its commitment to reduce national emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels;
its leadership in the “Umbrella Group” and its role as cofounder of the “High Ambition Coalition”;
its co-facilitation of the UNFCCC;
its work with the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement on agenda item 5: Modalities, procedures and guidelines for the transparency framework for action;
its support for the enhanced transparency framework for action and support referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement;
its pledge of $3,000,000,000 to the Green Climate Fund (of which the United States still owed $2,000,000,000) in support of developing countries’ efforts to adapt to climate change and to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions; and
the development of critical bilateral climate action cooperation initiatives with China and India; and
established the United States as essential to uniting the world in climate action cooperation.
The United States reversal on nearly all climate action policies since 2017, including repealing the Clean Power Plan (announced by President Obama in August 2015), canceling contributions to the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund, abstaining from all G7 and G20 climate action communiques, and withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement—
undermines the viability of the Paris Agreement;
harms American diplomacy;
disadvantages the ability of the United States private sector to compete in a clean energy global economy, for which the International Finance Corporation estimates that investments spurred by the Paris Agreement will creates up to $23,000,000,000,000 in new investment opportunities;
erodes the United States leadership, standing, and trust within the international community; and
concedes leadership and economic opportunity to foreign governments keen on taking advantage of the United States absence from international climate action initiatives.
The Paris Agreement’s central aim is—
to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by maintaining the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; and
to pursue efforts to further limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Paris Agreement—
specifies the need for a strong global response to climate change;
acknowledges that all “[p]arties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity”;
notes the importance of “climate justice” when mitigating and adapting to climate change;
recognizes “the need for an effective and progressive response to the urgent threat of climate change”;
requires all parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions and to strengthen these efforts in the future;
requires each party to update its nationally determined contribution every 5 years, with each successive nationally determined contribution representing a progression beyond the previous nationally determined contribution, and reflecting the party’s highest possible ambition;
recognizes that marine ecosystems covering more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface have an integral role in climate balance; and
was developed under the UNFCCC, an international environmental treaty which the United States ratified, with the advice and consent of the Senate on October 15, 1992.
Seventy percent of the Paris Agreement signatories’ nationally determined contributions in support of the goals of the Paris Agreement are ocean-inclusive, and 39 Paris Agreement signatories are focused on the inclusion of ocean action in nationally determined contributions through the Because the Ocean initiative.
The United States communicated its nationally determined contribution—
to achieve, by 2025, an economy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level; and
to make best efforts to reduce its emissions by 28 percent.
A thriving clean energy industry in the United States, which employs more than 500,000 Americans, is essential in achieving these targets.
A number of existing laws and regulations in the United States also are relevant to achieving this target, including—
the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.);
the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–486); and
the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Public Law 110–140).
On November 4, 2020, the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement became effective, which at the time resulted in the United States being the only state party (out of 197 parties) to the UNFCCC that is not a party to the Paris Agreement.
On January 20, 2021, President Biden initiated the process for reentering the United States into the Paris Agreement. On February 19, 2021, the United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement.
Article 8 of the Paris Agreement states, “Parties recognize the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events, and the role of sustainable development in reducing the risk of loss and damage.”. Such adverse effects include strong winds from hurricanes and tropical storms, and flooding from storm surges and heavy rain, that inflict losses on various sectors of the United States economy.
The Paris Agreement requires that parties “should strengthen their cooperation on enhancing action on adaptation, taking into account the Cancun Adaptation Framework”, which includes measures to enhance understanding, coordination and cooperation with regard to climate change induced displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate, at the national, regional and international levels.
The Paris Agreement is an example of the multilateral, international cooperation needed to overcome climate change-related challenges facing the global community, such as reducing emissions, promoting economic growth, and deploying clean energy technologies.
The Paris Agreement recognizes “the fundamental priority of safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change.”.
The Paris Agreement recognizes that—
adaptation is a global challenge facing all countries, with local, subnational, national, regional, and international dimensions; and
adapting to the effects of climate change is a key component of the long-term global response to climate change to protect people, livelihoods, and ecosystems.
American leadership during the Paris Agreement negotiations encouraged widespread international participation in the Paris Agreement.
American States, cities, and businesses are stepping up and pledging to meet the Paris Agreement goals in the wake of absent and uncertain leadership by the President.
The Paris Agreement—
has driven innovation in developing cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable forms of energy;
has demonstrated that addressing climate change and providing affordable energy to American consumers are not mutually exclusive; and
has encouraged the United States to develop the Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization, which—
was released on November 16, 2016; and
states, “Energy efficiency improvements enable the energy system to provide the services we need with fewer resources and emissions. Over the past several years, the United States has demonstrated that programs and standards to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, appliances and vehicles can cost-effectively cut carbon pollution and lower energy bills, while maintaining significant support from U.S. industry and consumers.”.
Global temperatures must be kept below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialized levels to avoid the most severe impacts of a changing climate, which will require—
global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from human sources of 40 to 60 percent from 2010 levels by 2030; and
net-zero global emissions by 2050.
Sense of Congress— It is the sense of Congress that—
when the United States proffers a strong commitment and focused leadership on climate action, the rest of the world will likely follow its example;
when the United States abdicates leadership on such matters, other countries are likely to waiver on their commitments to action and retract to insular posturing on matters that require cooperation; and
in order to avert the worst impacts of climate change, which is in the core national interest of the United States, the United States should—
prioritize climate change in its foreign policy, and ensure that climate change is taken into account in all foreign policy decision making;
set the standard for ambition on climate action;
use its diplomatic leverage to create incentives for other countries to take strong action on climate change;
broker, with other world powers, bilateral commitments on emissions reductions and climate finance and support for developing countries, which are critical for—
building trust and consensus around global cooperation on climate action; and
sending important investment signals to private finance and private industry on investment and development trends;
be transparent in how the United States is delivering on its commitments;
ensure it is adopting and implementing consistent policies and practices with respect to climate change across bilateral and multilateral development finance institutions;
hold other world powers accountable for making and meeting strong commitments;
call for reciprocal standards of transparency; and
support developing countries, in an inclusive manner—
to expand deployment and access to clean energy;
to plan and invest in climate change adaptation solutions;
to improve climate change resilience capacities; and
to promote—
sustainable agriculture practices;
food security; and
natural resource conservation.
Sec. 3 Purpose
The purpose of this Act is to provide authorities, resources, policies, and recommended administrative actions—
to restore United States global leadership on addressing the climate crisis and make United States climate action and climate diplomacy a more central tenet of United States foreign policy;
to improve the United States commitment to taking more ambitious action to help mitigate global greenhouse gas emission and improve developing countries’ resilience and adaptation capacities to the effects of climate change;
to reclaim, accept, and fully engage diplomacy within a variety of current and outstanding multilateral institutions that the United States has withdrawn, withheld support, or diminished meaningful engagement from in recent years;
to encourage the pursuit of new bilateral cooperation agreements with other world powers on initiatives to advance global clean energy innovation and deployment and other measures to mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions and improve climate change adaptation capacities;
to ensure that the United States national security apparatus integrates critically important data on the compounding effects that climate change is having on global security risks by enhancing our understanding of how, where, and when such effects are destabilizing countries and regions in ways that may motivate conflict, displacement, and other drivers of insecurity; and
to authorize funding and programs to support a reaffirmation of the United States commitments to international cooperation and support for developing and vulnerable countries to take climate action.
Sec. 4 Definitions
In this Act:
Appropriate congressional committees— The term appropriate congressional committees means—
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate;
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and
the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
Clean energy— The term clean energy means—
renewable energy and energy from systems;
energy production processes that emit zero greenhouse gas emissions, including nuclear power;
systems and processes that capture and permanently store greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production and electricity generation units;
products, processes, facilities, or systems designed to retrofit and improve the energy efficiency and electricity generated from electrical generation units, while using less fuel, less or fewer power production resources, or less feedstocks; and
zero emission vehicles.
Climate action— The term climate action means enhanced efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-induced impacts, including—
climate-related hazards in all countries;
integrating climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning; and
improving education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity with respect to climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.
Climate crisis— The term climate crisis means the social, economic, health, safety, and security impacts on people, and the threats to biodiversity and natural ecosystem health, which are attributable to the wide-variety of effects on global environmental and atmospheric conditions as a result of disruptions to the Earth’s climate from anthropogenic activities that generate greenhouse gas emissions or reduce natural resource capacities to absorb and regulate atmospheric carbon.
Climate diplomacy— The term climate diplomacy means methods of influencing the decisions and behavior of foreign governments and peoples through dialogue, negotiation, cooperation and other measures short of war or violence around issues related to addressing global climate change, including—
the mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions;
discussion, analysis, and sharing of scientific data and information on the cause and effects of climate change;
the security, social, economic, and political instability risks associated with the effects of climate change;
economic cooperation efforts and trade matters that are related to or associated with climate change and greenhouse gas mitigation from the global economy;
building resilience capacities and adapting to the effects of change;
sustainable land use and natural resource conservation;
accounting for loss and damage attributed to the effects of climate change;
just transition of carbon intense economies to low or zero carbon economies and accounting for laborers within affected economies; and
technological innovations that reduce or eliminate carbon emissions.
Climate security— The term climate security means the effects of climate change on—
United States national security concerns and subnational, national, and regional political stability; and
overseas security and conflict situations that are potentially exacerbated by dynamic environmental factors and events, including—
the intensification and frequency of droughts, floods, wildfires, tropical storms, and other extreme weather events;
changes in historical severe weather, drought, and wildfire patterns;
the expansion of geographical ranges of droughts, floods, and wildfires into regions that had not regularly experienced such phenomena;
global sea level rise patterns and the expansion of geographical ranges affected by drought; and
changes in marine environments that effect critical geostrategic waterways, such as the Arctic Ocean, the South China Sea, the South Pacific Ocean, the Barents Sea, and the Beaufort Sea.
Nationally determined contribution— The term nationally determined contribution means a country’s pledged efforts to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, which may include a financial pledge of support or financing to assist developing countries achieve their climate action goals, in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the Paris Agreement, which requires each Party—
to “prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions that it intends to achieve”; and
to “pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of such contributions”.
Natural climate solutions— The term natural climate solutions mean actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems that—
address climate change effectively and adaptively; and
simultaneously provide human well-being and environmental benefits.
Natural resources— The term natural resources means the terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine, and marine fish, wildlife, plants, land, air, water, habitats, and ecosystems.
Net zero greenhouse gas emissions— The term net zero greenhouse gas emissions means that any anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are balanced or offset by deliberate activities that absorb or capture and permanently store equivalent amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Paris agreement— The term Paris Agreement means the international agreement adopted by parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, France on December 12, 2015.
Renewable energy— The term renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from sources that naturally occur or are replenished in nature in a sustainable manner, including bioenergy, geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean energy, solar energy, and wind energy.
Resilience— The term resilience means the ability of human made and natural systems (including their component parts) to anticipate, absorb, cope, accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely and efficient manner, including through ensuring the preservation, restoration, or improvement of its essential basic structures and functions.
UNFCCC— The term UNFCCC means the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, done at New York May 9, 1992, and entered into force March 21, 1994.
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement; USMCA— The terms United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and USMCA mean the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada, done at Buenos Aires November 30, 2018.