Cop28

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Thank you, Senator Cardin. Thank you for your leadership in bringing our delegation to COP28. And what a delegation with you as the chairman of Senate Foreign Relations; Senator Carper, the chairman of Environment and Public Works; and Senator Whitehouse, a historic leader on these issues--and even sitting out here on the floor right now, Senator Wyden, who was so instrumental in ensuring that the IRA passed and that it had the incentives to unleash a clean energy revolution that had been long overdue in terms of having a response. So we thank you.

And we thank the young people--the pages--who are here today because they are the true leaders of this movement.

Coming off the heels of this year's climate talks, it was clear that COP28--the international climate conference--was an opportunity to lift our gaze, to lift the planet's gaze to the constellation of possibilities for our ability to be able to respond to this crisis that is affecting our planet and to readjust the gravitational force of fossil-fueled interests that pull our countries away from climate action.

I have been to many international climate conferences over the years. I know how much it matters to give countries a space to convene, to give advocates a chance to hold governments accountable, and to give the public a direction for a livable future. COPs give us a chance to organize and not just agonize about the climate crisis.

I was encouraged to see the final COP28 deal include a call to transition away from fossil fuels, as well as an agreement on the fund for losses and damages due to climate change.

We have never had such a strong signal that it is time to close the chapter on the heyday of fossil fuels. But the science is clear: Weak agreement language will not keep our planet strong. We can't just agree to consider lifesaving actions; we must commit to those lifesaving actions.

COP28 came to a loophole-filled end, less an embrace of a fossil-free future and more a step in the right direction when we needed to be sprinting toward a fossil-fuel phaseout on the planet.

The climate crisis disproportionately impacts people who are least responsible, most affected, and, most often, left behind: poor, marginalized, and indigenous communities.

We can't build walls around the climate crisis so we have to build bridges. To be a leader, the United States must commit to phasing out fossil fuels and to putting our money where our mouth is. We have done it at home with the Inflation Reduction Act, which is already unleashing commitments of nearly $300 billion in private funding for clean energy in just the first year since it passed. And it has the potential of ultimately unleashing trillions of dollars of private sector investment over the next decade. And I think it will do that.

But now we need to do it internationally as well. We have to provide direct finance for clean energy and climate resilience. We must push the World Bank and we must push the International Monetary Fund to do more and to do better, and we must stop subsidizing, financing, and approving new fossil fuel plants around the world.

We cannot preach temperance from a barstool. And the United States right now is drunk on oil and natural gas production and exports from our country around the world. Plus, we continue to foot the bill for other countries' fossil-fueled binges.

In the face of these challenges, the answer is not to reverse course on our climate and clean energy commitments. It is to double down. It is to do more. It is to respond to this moral challenge to our country and to our planet, to the challenge which young people are given, to this body, and to the world to respond to a crisis that was not dealt with by preceding generations.

Trying to solve climate change without a phaseout of fossil fuels is like trying to end lung cancer without getting off cigarettes. Our prescription here is clear: Phase out fossil fuels and build clean economies here at home and abroad at the same time.

And I look forward to continuing to partner with my colleagues in Congress, members of Parliament around the world pushing for a fossil- free future, environmental and climate justice organizations led by young people, and all those who are working for a global Green New Deal. Young people are leading us, and we must respond to them.

They are right and the fossil fuel industry is wrong on every one of these issues, and we have to continue to respond to this challenge politically. We have taken important steps, and the Senators who are here today led that effort but without a single Republican vote. We cannot sprint toward the solutions if we do not have more support from the Republican Party. We will not have credibility with the rest of the world if we continue to build LNG export facilities to send natural gas around the world, to addict countries to natural gas while we should be helping them to deploy wind, solar, all-electric vehicles, battery storage technologies, and other clean energy technologies.

That is what we should be doing. We have to end this era where we are about to try to build dozens of LNG--liquefied natural gas--plants to addict the rest of the world.

Fossil fuel climate change is a threat to each and every one of us. So each and every one of us has a role to play in heeding the COP's call to action.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for your leadership. Thank you for convening us here today.

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