The global impacts of climate change will be irreversible without curbing heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels, according to the latest United Nations report.
United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Sunday released the synthesis of three reports on climate change. The report tackles head-on doubts often raised by climate change skeptics about the cause of the global warming trend. The authors say “human influence on the climate system is clear,” and human-caused emissions between 2000 to 2010 were the “highest in human history.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a member of the Senate Environment and Energy committees, said in a statement Monday that the report is the strongest case yet for decisive action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
“The scientific community across the world is sounding the alarm. Climate change is real and it will have devastating consequences around the globe unless we act boldly and decisively,” he said.
Sanders and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, have proposed legislation that would place a fee of $20 per ton of carbon or equivalent emissions on the the largest fossil fuel polluters, according to Sanders’ two-page summary of the Climate Protection Act.
According to the bill summary, the fee would raise $1.2 trillion over 10 years and by 2025, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels. The revenue from the fee would be used, in part, to invest in energy efficiency, a wide range of thermal and electric energy generation, public transportation, and battery storage.
The legislation would also require companies to disclose the chemicals they use in the process of hydraulic fracturing, end fossil fuel tax credits, and extend tax credits for renewables.
President Barack Obama told lawmakers in his 2013 State of the Union address to pass bipartisan “market-based” climate change legislation. Days later, Boxer announced the proposed Climate Protection Act and Sanders sponsored it.
This summer, the White House released proposed rules to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants approximately 30 percent from levels in 2005, and called on states to achieve the goals by 2030. Vermont does not generate electricity from coal and is the only state not required to come up with a plan (the District of Columbia is also exempt).
A spokesman for Sanders said the bill will not be dropped due to the proposed regulations. Instead, he said its fate would be affected most by which party controls the Senate and who will chair committees.
The report finds many of the effects of climate change will continue for centuries, even if humans stopped emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And many of these impacts, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones, sea-level rise, and wildfires will particularly affect poor populations, the report found.
The U.S. will decide whether to contribute to a special fund created by the United Nations to help poor countries address climate change, according to a spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who chairs the Appropriations Committee.
“This report underscores the need to continue our international engagement and make ambitious emission reduction targets and support investments in the Green Climate Fund to channel resources to developing countries to assist in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change,” Leahy said in an email.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, introduced a combined efficiency and renewable electricity standard in 2012. The bill is still in committee.
“Immediate steps are needed to slow its march, including a reduction in our reliance on fossil fuels. Tackling climate change is an imperative for our environment but it is also an economic opportunity,” he said in an email.
