[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 59 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 59
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Paris
Agreement shall have no effect in the United States until it is
renegotiated to ensure the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and receives the advice and
consent to ratification of the United States Senate.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 21, 2021
Mr. McKinley (for himself, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Comer,
Mr. Pfluger, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Latta, Mr. Rouzer, Mr. Barr, Mr.
Bucshon, Mr. Burgess, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Banks, Mr. Johnson
of Ohio, and Mr. Moore of Alabama) submitted the following resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Paris
Agreement shall have no effect in the United States until it is
renegotiated to ensure the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and receives the advice and
consent to ratification of the United States Senate.
Whereas, on May 9, 1992, the United States Senate provided its advice and
consent to ratification regarding the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (``Framework Convention''), which entered
into force on March 21, 1994;
Whereas the Framework Convention was ratified under the express limitation
``that a decision by the Conference of the Parties to adopt targets and
timetables would have to be submitted to the Senate for its advice and
consent'';
Whereas the Kyoto Protocol, completed at the 3d Conference of the Parties
(``COP'') to the Framework Convention in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan,
contains emissions targets and timetables, and was signed by President
William Jefferson Clinton on behalf of the United States but never
submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification;
Whereas, on July 25, 1997, prior to President William Jefferson Clinton's
signing of the Kyoto Protocol, then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., joined
his colleagues in the Senate in unanimously passing the Byrd-Hagel
Resolution, which expressed congressional disapproval of any
international agreement that did not require developing countries to
reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and ``would seriously harm the
economy of the United States'';
Whereas the COP in Durban, South Africa, agreed to the Durban Platform for
Enhanced Action, which charged the Parties with adopting a ``protocol,
another legal instrument, or an agreed outcome with legal force'' at the
21st COP;
Whereas the Paris Agreement represents the COP's most recent attempt to impose
legally binding requirements on all parties to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, as envisioned by the Durban Platform;
Whereas the Paris Agreement ``and every article and clause thereof'' was
accepted by President Barack Obama on behalf of the United States solely
through executive action, rather than submitted to the Senate for its
advice and consent to ratification;
Whereas 178 of the 196 parties to the Paris Agreement, other than the United
States, believe it to be a treaty and have formally ratified it through
their respective processes;
Whereas mere executive approval of the Paris Agreement does not give it any
force of law in the United States and cannot be used to justify
regulation;
Whereas implementation of the Paris Agreement, absent the advice and consent to
ratification of the United States Senate, would require pursuing
unilateral and punitive regulatory policies harmful to United States
economic competitiveness, including significant job loss, increased
energy and consumer costs, risks to grid reliability, or any combination
thereof;
Whereas when originally negotiating the Paris Agreement, incoming Special
Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry stated, ``if . . . all the
industrial nations went down to zero emissions, it wouldn't be enough,
not when more than 65 percent of the world's carbon pollution comes from
the developing world'';
Whereas the Paris Agreement continues to treat the People's Republic of China,
the world's second largest economy and largest emitter of greenhouse
gasses, as a ``developing country'', and therefore enables this nation
to continue to pursue energy and industrial policies that undermine the
economic interests of the United States and its citizens;
Whereas to protect the interests of the United States and its citizens, prior to
its submission to the United States Senate for its advice and consent to
ratification, the Paris Agreement should be renegotiated to ensure the
People's Republic of China and other of the world's largest emitters of
greenhouse gases, including the Republic of India and the Russian
Federation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a pace and scale
equivalent to that of the United States, members of the European Union,
and other advanced nations;
Whereas, between 1990 and 2018, global carbon dioxide emissions grew by 62
percent despite nearly 30 years of international climate agreements;
Whereas the emissions reduction goals of the Paris Agreement cannot be met
without the development and global deployment of affordable energy
technologies, including storage, nuclear, and clean fossil technologies,
as well as commercial-scale carbon, capture, utilization, and storage
technologies;
Whereas development and deployment of these technologies to meet the needs of
nations striving to improve human welfare cannot take place under
regulatory and legal regimes that stifle American economic growth and
prosperity;
Whereas the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement, pursuant to the
terms of the Agreement, which President Donald J. Trump first announced
on June 1, 2017, and took effect on November 4, 2020; and
Whereas, on January 20, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., signed an
Executive order to reenter the Paris Agreement: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
until the Paris Agreement is renegotiated to ensure the world's largest
emitters of greenhouse gases reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,
submitted to the United States Senate for its advice and consent to
ratification, and subsequently approved by the United States Senate
exercising its article II responsibilities--
(1) the Paris Agreement shall not have the force or effect
of a treaty;
(2) none of its provisions are binding on the United States
in any way;
(3) executive emissions pledges made under the Paris
Agreement on behalf of the United States shall have no effect
and are not binding;
(4) the Paris Agreement cannot be used as the legal basis
for regulation; and
(5) Congress should refuse to consider any budget
resolutions and appropriations language that include funding
for the Green Climate Fund or any affiliated body or financing
mechanism.
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