WASHINGTON (April 13, 2014) -- Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the chair of the U.S. Senate Climate Change Clearinghouse and Chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over global climate and energy issues, today released the following statement regarding the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s updated report on the need for action to cut global warming emissions. Senator Markey is the co-author of the only comprehensive climate change bill the House or Senate that would have set a mid-century target of 80 percent reductions in the emissions that drive climate change.

 

“This report says we have a choice. Our planet and our economies can have a bright future by engaging in a clean energy race, or we can do nothing and have a bleak future for the human race. This is our chance to engage in clean energy job creation that is also good for all of creation.

 

“The costs to deploy clean energy are falling dramatically, and the costs to our environment from fossil fuel use are adding up. We must enact the policies that moves our planet away from the dirtiest fuels like coal and tar sands, and unleashes the human entrepreneurial spirit in the name of clean energy and job creation.

 

“In the United States Congress, I will continue to fight for policies that will cut emissions and grow clean energy. We passed a comprehensive climate change bill before – the Waxman-Markey bill – and we can do it again.

 

“I call on all of my colleagues in the Senate to respond to the science, to realize the huge economic potential, and to re-engage on solving the greatest challenge of our time.”