Senator Carper Urges President Trump: “Do not cede U.S. leadership on addressing global climate change”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ahead of this week’s G-7 meeting, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, went to the Senate floor today to urge President Trump to keep the United States party to the Paris Agreement, a historic pledge among nearly 200 countries to reduce emissions and limit global temperature rise. 

“There is an African proverb that says – ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ The Paris Agreement was developed in that spirit. The agreement acknowledged that, together, we can do more to protect our planet from the global threat of climate change than any one country could do on its own,” said Senator Carper.

He continued, “Throughout history, there have been critical moments when the global community has come together to do what is best our collective future. The Paris Agreement was one such moment. 195 signers have agreed to its principles – that is nearly the whole world. In fact, only two countries have not signed this global agreement. Nicaragua is one. Ironically, they declined to sign the agreement because, as a developing nation already feeling the impacts of climate change, they did not think it went far enough.  The other country is Syria. Mr. President, that is not the company we should be keeping.”

Senator Carper also joined Senate Democrats in sending a letter today urging President Trump not to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. In the letter, the 40 lawmakers stressed that withdrawal could put both U.S. leadership and economic interests at risk, citing over 1,000 companies – worth more than $1.2 trillion annually – that have affirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement.

The senators wrote, “Backing out of the Paris Agreement now, after the years of painstaking negotiations and strong U.S. leadership it took to get the world to this point, would be a self-inflicted injury to America’s credibility and influence on the world stage… Our economy and our small businesses will miss out on vital investment and job opportunities, while the rest of the world moves forward with trillions of dollars of investment in resilient infrastructure, low-carbon energy, sustainable agriculture, and new technologies.”

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