U.N. report finds nations not acting fast enough to protect populations from current and future climate threats, as the Supreme Court takes up case that threatens the EPA’s authority to regulate pollution

Boston (February 28, 2022) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, released the following statement in response to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, entitled “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. This report highlights the ways the climate crisis is already causing irreversible damage, including leaving as many as 3.6 billion people worldwide highly vulnerable to climate impacts. However, the report also finds that the global response to the climate crisis is uneven, insufficient, and at risk of worsening inequalities.

“One day before we gather to hear the State of the Union address, our preeminent international body of climate scientists has delivered a devastating report on the state of our planet. Climate change—caused by the ongoing and historic use of fossil fuels—has led to worldwide suffering, displacement, and death. Storms, floods, heat waves, droughts, wildfires have been supercharged by climate change and are out of control, and incremental efforts won’t be enough to keep people safe today or in the future. We need a transformation that centers the communities most at risk and supports our workers, we need an economy powered by clean energy, and we need investment at the scale and urgency demanded by this unrelenting crisis. We can deliver on all counts with a Green New Deal.

“The documented life-threatening effects of the climate crisis and greenhouse gas emissions have never been clearer. But today, the Supreme Court heard arguments that are attempting to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s statutory authority to regulate dangerous climate pollution. The stakes could not be higher: we must protect our communities and our climate, and we cannot allow a stolen court to steal our future.”