Washington (September 3, 2016) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chair of the Senate Climate Clearinghouse and co-author of the only comprehensive climate legislation to ever pass a chamber of Congress, released the following statement today after the announcement that the United States and China will formally join the Paris Agreement on climate change, a major step towards the agreement coming into force. To start, the Paris Agreement needs to have 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions formally join.
“The United States and China are both the world’s two largest economies and carbon pollution emitters: if leadership on climate change is to be shown anywhere, it has to be in our nations. The previous U.S.-China agreements on climate action were instrumental to forging the Paris Agreement last December. With today’s announcement, that leadership continues. Business and investors now have an even stronger signal to invest in and develop the technologies that willmake a low carbon economy a reality.”
By formally joining the Paris Agreement, the United States underscores the commitment it first made in 1992 by ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to work with all countries on a global solution to global warming. The Paris Agreement brought all the countries of the world together to do their fair share to address climate change. As we continue to lead the world in reducing carbon pollution and expanding clean energy, we will continue to lead the world toward a clean energy economy.
