International Climate Accountability Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1743 To direct the President to develop a plan for the United States to meet its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 5, 2019 Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. CARPER, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. MERKLEY, Ms. SMITH, Mr. SANDERS, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. BROWN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. REED, Mr. SCHATZ, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. COONS, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. KAINE, Mrs. MURRAY, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. UDALL, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. KING, Mr. CARDIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. CASEY, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. WAR- NER, Ms. SINEMA, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. BENNET, Mr. PETERS, Mr. TESTER, Mr. JONES, and Ms. CANTWELL) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To direct the President to develop a plan for the United States to meet its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1743 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Climate 2 Accountability Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 Congress finds the following: 5 (1) In Paris, on December 12, 2015, parties to 6 the United Nations Framework Convention on Cli- 7 mate Change (UNFCCC) reached a landmark agree- 8 ment to combat climate change and to accelerate 9 and intensify the actions and investments needed for 10 a sustainable low carbon future. 11 (2) The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to 12 strengthen— 13 (A) international cooperation among par- 14 ties on reducing global greenhouse gas emis- 15 sions to mitigate the threat of climate change 16 by keeping a global average temperature in- 17 crease below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-indus- 18 trial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the 19 temperature increase even further to 1.5 de- 20 grees Celsius; and 21 (B) ambition towards achieving global 22 greenhouse gas emission reductions sufficient to 23 reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement by 24 requiring parties to make their own nationally 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1743 IS determined contribution (NDC) of greenhouse 1 gas emission reductions. 2 (3) The Paris Agreement is the premier inter- 3 governmental forum and mechanism at the disposal 4 of the United States for protecting and advancing 5 United States strategic and economic interests in a 6 changing, low-carbon, global economy. 7 (4) The enhanced transparency and reporting 8 framework established under the Paris Agreement 9 will provide an effective means of holding other par- 10 ties accountable for their commitments. 11 (5) The United States is playing a leading role 12 in the development of procedures and guidelines to 13 implement the transparency framework under the 14 Paris Agreement. 15 (6) Since May 31, 2017, more than 400 United 16 States mayors have adopted the Paris Agreement 17 goals for their cities and 24 United States governors 18 have formed a bipartisan coalition to realize the 19 Paris Agreement goals at the State level. 20 (7) The Paris Agreement— 21 (A) notes the importance of ‘‘climate jus- 22 tice’’ when mitigating and adapting to climate 23 change; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1743 IS (B) recognizes ‘‘the need for an effective 1 and progressive response to the urgent threat of 2 climate change’’. 3 (8) The cost of inaction on climate change will 4 have devastating impacts to the United States econ- 5 omy, costing billions of dollars in lost GDP. 6 (9) The Paris Agreement further requires each 7 party to update its nationally determined contribu- 8 tion every 5 years, and these NDC should reflect the 9 party’s highest possible ambition. 10 (10) The United States communicated its first 11 nationally determined contribution to achieve an 12 economy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas 13 emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level 14 in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its emis- 15 sions by 28 percent. 16 (11) A number of existing laws, regulations, 17 and other mandatory measures in the United States 18 are relevant to achieving this target, including the 19 Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), the Energy 20 Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–486), and the 21 Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 22 (Public Law 110–140). 23 (12) On June 1, 2017, President Donald J. 24 Trump announced his intention to withdraw the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1743 IS United States from the Paris Agreement, negotiate 1 our way back into Paris, or ‘‘negotiate a new deal’’. 2 (13) Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement 3 would leave the United States as the only UNFCCC 4 member state that is not a signatory to the Paris 5 Agreement. 6 (14) Dozens of foreign heads of state have ex- 7 pressed support for the United States to remain a 8 party to the Paris Agreement. 9 (15) Leading companies across major economic 10 sectors believe that the participation of the United 11 States in the Paris Agreement strengthens United 12 States employment, growth, and competitiveness and 13 that withdrawal from the Agreement would put 14 United States companies at a competitive disadvan- 15 tage. 16 (16) Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, 17 the earliest possible effective withdrawal date by the 18 United States is November 4, 2020. However, the 19 United States is still obligated to maintain certain 20 commitments under the United Nations Framework 21 Convention on Climate Change, such as continuing 22 to report its emissions to the United Nations. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1743 IS SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS TO ADVANCE THE 1 WITHDRAWAL OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 2 THE PARIS AGREEMENT. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi- 4 sion of law, no funds are authorized to be appropriated, 5 obligated, or expended to take any action to advance the 6 withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agree- 7 ment. 8 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Subsection (a) shall 9 not be construed to constrain or prohibit the United States 10 Government from participating in the implementation and 11 execution of the Paris Agreement, including meeting cur- 12 rent obligations under the Paris Agreements and the 13 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 14 Change. 15 SEC. 4. PLAN FOR THE UNITED STATES TO MEET ITS NA- 16 TIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTION 17 UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT. 18 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 19 date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall de- 20 velop and submit to the appropriate congressional commit- 21 tees and make available to the public a plan for the United 22 States to meet its nationally determined contribution 23 under the Paris Agreement. The plan shall describe— 24 (1) how the United States will achieve an econ- 25 omy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1743 IS emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level 1 by 2025; and 2 (2) how the United States will use the Paris 3 Agreement’s transparency provisions to confirm that 4 other parties to the Agreement with major econo- 5 mies are fulfilling their announced contributions to 6 the Agreement. 7 (b) UPDATES TO PLAN.—Not later than one year 8 after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually 9 thereafter, the President shall submit to the appropriate 10 congressional committees and make available to the public 11 an updated plan under subsection (a). 12 (c) SUCCESSIVE NATIONALLY DETERMINED CON- 13 TRIBUTIONS.—The updated plan developed pursuant to 14 subsection (c) may serve as the United States’ successive 15 NDC, in accordance with Article 4.3 of the Paris Agree- 16 ment, and may be communicated to the United Nations 17 Secretary-General in accordance with Article 4.9 of the 18 Paris Agreement. 19 (d) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES 20 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate con- 21 gressional committees’’ means— 22 (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the 23 Committee on Environment and Public Works, the 24 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1743 IS Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, 1 and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; 2 and 3 (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 4 Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Com- 5 mittee on Agriculture, and the Committee on Appro- 6 priations of the House of Representatives. 7 SEC. 5. PARIS AGREEMENT DEFINED. 8 In this Act, the term ‘‘Paris Agreement’’ means the 9 decision by the United Nations Framework Convention on 10 Climate Change’s 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, 11 France, adopted December 12, 2015. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:29 Jun 13, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1743.IS S1743 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS