The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) and Senator Richard Lugar’s (R-IN) bipartisan resolution (S.Res.30) calling for the U.S. to return to international negotiations on climate change.
This is the first legislation on climate change to move out of a Committee in the 110th Congress. “The climate has changed. It has changed outside, where last year was the warmest on record in the United States. And the climate has changed in halls of the Senate, where the causes and consequences of global warming – and how we should respond – is a major concern of this new Congress,” said Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Joe Biden.
The resolution calls for United States participation in negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed by the first President Bush, to protect the economic and security interests of the United States, and to commit all nations – developed and developing – that are major emitters of greenhouse gases to achieve significant long-term reductions in those emissions. Most important, it puts the Senate on record, calling for the United States to resume its role as leader in the international effort to address this global threat. The resolution also calls for a bipartisan Senate observer group to monitor these talks and ensure that our negotiators bring back agreements that all Americans can support.
“For too long we have abdicated the responsibility to reduce our own emissions, the largest single source of the problem we face today. We have the world’s largest economy, with the highest per capita emissions. Rather than leading by example, we have retreated from meaningful, binding, multilateral international negotiations,” he said.
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Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) have introduced bipartisan legislation that would require a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to assess the security challenges presented by the world’s changing climate.
National Intelligence Estimates are the federal government’s most authoritative written judgments concerning national security issues and are developed to address the most serious of threats.
They are comprehensive reviews of potential security threats that combines, correlates and evaluates intelligence from all of the relevant U.S. intelligence agencies. Various intelligence agencies – the CIA, NSA, the Pentagon, FBI, etc. – must pool data, share perspectives and work together to assemble an accurate picture of threats to U.S. security.
“For years, too many of us have viewed global warming as simply an environmental or economic issue. We now need to consider it as a security concern,” said Durbin. “Many of the most severe effects of global warming are expected in regions where fragile governments are least capable of responding to them. Failing to recognize and plan for the geopolitical consequences of global warming would be a serious mistake. This intelligence assessment will guide policymakers in protecting our national security and averting potential international crises.”
The two senators said an NIE is essential to accurately compare and contrast strategic intelligence gathered by different intelligence agencies. Without an NIE, the various agencies may never have an opportunity to examine each other’s data, and any differences or similarities between the reports could provide important information for policymakers.
Durbin and Hagel’s bill, the Global Climate Change Security Oversight Act, asks the intelligence community to provide a strategic estimate of the risks posed by global climate change for countries or regions that are of particular economic or military significance to the United States or that are at serious risk of humanitarian suffering. This National Intelligence Estimate will assess the political, social, agricultural, and economic challenges for countries and their likely impact.
Environmental changes caused by global warming represent a potential threat multiplier for instability around the world. Scarce water, for example, may exacerbate conflict along economic, ethnic, or sectarian divisions. Water shortages, food insecurity, or flooding – all of which may occur as a result of rising global temperatures – could also displace people, forcing them to migrate. The NIE will look beyond the short-term and require the intelligence community to analyze these issues in the context of the next thirty years. The legislation will also fund additional research by the Department of Defense in order to examine the impact of climate change on military operations.
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Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, will introduce the Creating Renewable Energy through Science and Technology (CREST) Act today.
The CREST Act establishes and authorizes funding for a Council on Renewable Energies (CORE). The Council will advise Congress on national renewable energy strategy, research and development, including offshore wind production, solar power, geothermal, alternative biofuels and wave energy. It will also facilitate collaboration across federal agencies and departments on executing national renewable energy objectives.
The bill directs the CORE to be established within the National Science Foundation. It would be comprised of department heads from research institutions, industry representatives, state officials and the U.S. Departments of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce and the National Atmospheric Administration and Office of Science and Technology Policy.
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