Meeting Our Paris Agreement Commitments

Floor Speech

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, by rejoining the Paris Agreement, President Biden has promised the world that America will retake its position as a global leader in the fight against climate change and be true to its word to meet our commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. It now falls to us--it falls to Congress--to prove the President right.

Despite all the confused, disingenuous, and flatly false rhetoric around the Paris Agreement, in reality, it is simply a framework for catalyzing, measuring, and improving action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate impacts.

The agreement, signed by 195 countries in Paris and not simply for the benefit of that city, is made up of commitments from each nation, determined by that nation, and which they are each responsible for meeting.

President Biden's commitment, necessary as it was, will not itself reduce America's emissions enough to meet our 2015 promise to the world or to stem the climate crisis. For that, we must act urgently. We must reject the bad-faith talking points about a false dichotomy between environmental stewardship and economic growth and openly embrace the idea that a sustainable economy is dependent upon a sustainable environment.

Far from climate action costing us jobs, the truth is that our entire economy is at stake if we do act on climate. By contrast, climate action means clean air and better public health. It means more miles between fill-ups and more money in Americans' pockets. It means reliable, robust harvests and innovative and productive ways to make money farming sustainably.

It means passing America's beautiful natural heritage on to future generations and protecting the places and creatures that make our country the envy of the world. It means safe, livable coastlines that don't wash away our roads and our homes. And it means high-paying jobs that can't be outsourced--up to 24 million globally, according to the United Nations.

We have a lot of work to do: building out electric vehicle infrastructure and a modern electric grid; cleaning up our rivers and lakes; deploying clean, renewable power generation; and inventing the next leap in battery storage technology.

No one is better suited than American workers. Low-carbon, long-term, and resilient economic growth and ecological stability are within our grasp, but only if we have the courage to go after them.

This Congress must send legislation to the President's desk meeting this challenge and seizing this opportunity. Executive action cannot do it alone.

I am proud to serve as vice chair of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. This group has worked for years to advance commonsense legislation to create green jobs and seize low-carbon opportunities, exactly the type of legislation we will need to meet our Paris Agreement commitments.

Mr. Speaker, preliminary data indicates that 2020 will tie 2016 and go down in history as the hottest year on record. This means that the 7 hottest years have now occurred in the 7 last years.

The call for action from those whose homes have been destroyed by natural disasters and from those suffering through record heat waves and droughts is loud and clear. And we hear that same call from our constituents who see through the pandering misdirection of outdated thinking, understand the imperative to act, and increasingly vote only for those willing to take action.

President Biden corrected an egregious mistake when he moved to reenter the U.S. into the Paris Agreement. We must move with him and usher in the low-carbon economy of the future now.

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