EESI Calls for Bipartisan Support of Climate Action Now Act

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) is calling for bipartisan support of the Climate Action Now Act (HR 9), which was introduced into the House of Representatives today.

The legislation would prohibit the use of federal funds to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, and would direct the President to unveil a plan to meet the carbon reduction goals the United States pledged to meet when it signed the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016. The Agreement calls on the world's nations to keep global warming significantly below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by transitioning to clean energy and adopting energy efficiency measures. Nearly 200 countries have signed on to it.

"The United States must take action to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. It must meet the commitments it made as part of the Paris Climate Agreement, and remain in the agreement to show the world we are serious about our commitments and our common future," said EESI Executive Director Carol Werner. "We're already seeing the impacts of climate change, with raging fires in the West, floods in the Midwest, and rising seas in the East and the Gulf. Scientists are warning us that things will only get worse. And more and more Americans—a large majority of them, in fact, Republicans, Independents and Democrats—are alarmed about climate change and want our country to take action."

The U.S. government released Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA) in November 2018, which confirmed that "the evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats to Americans’ physical, social, and economic well-being are rising." The U.S. report, prepared by 13 federal agencies, echoed the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in October, which warned that the world has just 12 years to dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid irreversible changes.

Yale University research has found that six in ten Americans are now either “Alarmed” or “Concerned” about global warming. EESI held Congressional briefing on March 28 on the American public's perception of climate change, Climate Change in the American Mind.