In letter to President Biden, senators call for United States to build on climate success of Inflation Reduction Act and ensure vulnerable nations have necessary resources to address climate damage
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today joined colleagues in sending a letter to President Joe Biden urging the Administration to strengthen the position of the United States as a global leader in combatting the climate crisis.
In the letter — which was sent ahead of the 27th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt — the senators call for President Biden to bolster climate and finance commitments and ensure that vulnerable, developing nations receive sufficient support to address losses and damages caused by the climate crisis. The lawmakers also urge President Biden to use all the available tools, including executive and regulatory action, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to fulfill the U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris climate agreement, which consists of a target to reduce emissions by 50 to 52 percent in 2030, compared to a 2005 baseline.
“As we make history at home by implementing unprecedented climate and clean energy action delivered in the Inflation Reduction Act, we cannot turn our back on the rest of the world. Climate change is a global challenge, and as frontline nations face immense loss and damage wrought by environmental disasters caused largely by other nation’s longtime climate negligence, ours included, we must step up and deliver once again for vulnerable people around the world.”
“With enactment of the historic Inflation Reduction Act, the United States is better positioned than ever to serve as a world leader in the fight to protect our planet and ensure that vulnerable developing nations receive sufficient funding and support to address losses and damages caused by climate change,” the senators write in their letter. “No one is exempt from the effects of the climate crisis, but the most vulnerable nations at the frontline of the climate crisis have endured and are enduring disproportionate suffering, while contributing the least to global carbon emissions. The United States, by contrast, is responsible for around one-quarter of historic carbon emissions, more than any other nation or the European Union.”
In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was led by Senator Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
A copy of the letter is here.
A web version of this release is here.
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