Transcripts For CSPAN House Speaker Pelosi Others At U.N. Climate Change Conference 20240713

Now primejust minister president sanchez for hosting the Framework Convention on Climate Change here in spain. As Prime Minister president , sanchez has said we must build a Global Economy that is prosperous, fair, and ecological , and socially just, and we completely agree. I also want to commend the and their of chile, leadership in putting together this conference of parties. Exciting for us to be here. The firstit is meeting. For me, my first one was called the earth summit in 1992 in brazil. Then, certain goals clearly we have not met them. Goals of thishe meeting. I was honored to represent the United States and france for the g7 heads of parliament focusing on Parliament Commitment to the oceans and im so pleased that this meeting has the blue ocean priority as part of it. It is a privilege to lead this very distinguished congressional delegation from the house and this crucialtinue conversation. By coming here, we want to say to everyone that we are still in. The United States is still in. Im honored that we are joined by senator Sheldon Whitehouse of rhode island. Johnson. Ie bernice she is from texas. The chair of the Natural Resources committee. The chair of the select committee on the Climate Crisis. A very distinguished delegation that also includes the chair of the appropriations subcommittee on Natural Resources. And also members of the select committee on climate, which kathy hast her chairs, and you will hear more about. We have members of that committee, including not only the senior chairperson, but also members of our freshman class. Among those members that are with us, representative from , jared california huffman of california, representative scott peters of california. Did i tell you i was from california . [laughter] Speaker Pelosi representative Debbie Dingell from michigan. Mike of california. Representative sean casten of illinois. And the representative from colorado. Members of our very distinguished freshman class. Our delegation is here to send a message that Congress Commitment to take action on the Climate Crisis is ironclad. We must act because the Climate Crisis is a matter of Public Health, clean air, clean water for our childrens survival. Greenonomy advancing technologies to lift everyone up, as we addressed. Income disparity in the world, national security, combating extreme weather events, and restoring competition that drives migration. Justice and of equality. And equality. In a moral responsibility. Responsibility to each other. If you dont share that belief, we all agree that we have a moral responsibility to our children to pass on this planet in a responsible way. You also know about the emissions gap report. It means we now must deliver emissionsr cuts in and we intend to do that. My colleagues will talk about some of the actions we have taken in congress, what we have learned in this visit, and i will just close by saying, i mentioned the conference i was at for the g7 heads of parliament. I will be hosting that in washington next year. Our theme is addressing the Climate Crisis with economic and Environmental Justice for all. Of the the needs vulnerable states, vulnerable people, indigenous people. What president sanchez talked inut this morning includes the ambition and the rest of what the secretary general spoke about, a vision that we all share. Again, coming from the United States. With that, i want to yield to the distinguished member of the United States senate, senator Sheldon Whitehouse of rhode island. Senator whitehouse it is a great honor for me to be here surrounded by powerful house chairmen like chairman pallone, chairman johnson. It is a particularly great matter of pride to be in the delegation led by Speaker Pelosi. Speaker pelosis presence at significantnot only in its own right, but it also signals the broad consensus of the United States of america in favor of Climate Action. At the state level, at the city level, across the public, and in a great deal of corporate america. We are indeed still in. Unfortunately, we are having to fight our way through a bit of a blockade by the fossil fuel industry. You may hear statements from the fossil fuel industry about what their hopes and expectations are for Climate Action. My experience is that the statement from their lips do not match the expenditure of their funds still dedicated to maintaining a significant political apparatus of denial and obstruction. That will not prevail and the america that you know, the america of leadership, the america of progress, the america of confidence, the america of , peopled Green Energy Like secretary kerry and president obamas work at the original paris conference is something we should all reflect on while we are here today. That america will be back. WeSpeaker Pelosi said, yes, are still in. Thank. Speaker pelosi thank you very much, senator whitehouse. To yield to the distinguished chair, congresswoman kathy castor of florida. Cop,esswoman castor this conference of parties. This delegation is here from the United States to say that we are committed to Climate Action now. All across the United States of america, cities, states, businesses, academic institutions are lowering Greenhouse Gas emissions and taking Climate Action. This year, the house of representatives passed bipartisan legislation,ncluding the Climate Action which says that the United States of america will remain committed to the goals of the the paris climate agreement. We are also focused on the future. In march 2020 under Speaker Pelosis leadership and the united consensus of the democrats. A plan for the United States of america through its Congressional Committee to tackle the Climate Crisis to reduce our Greenhouse Gas emissions, and to begin to adapt in a greater way to the Climate Crisis and its impact. Will bemate action plan an extraordinary opportunity to begin to really invest in the clean energy economy. We will see in future years this transformation and opportunity in the Energy Sector, the transportation sector, agriculture, farmers, how we build buildings, where we build buildings, and becoming more energy efficient. We intend to follow the science. Thattend to ensure vulnerable communities all across america and the globe. Ave every opportunity together, we will solve the Climate Crisis together. Im honored to be a part of the select committee on the Climate Crisis. Thank you, madam. Speaker pelosi thank you. It is my pleasure to yield to the distinguished chair of the energy and Commerce Committee in the congress. They say water touches it, wind blows over it, it is about health, it is about wall street, whatever it is, it is in this committee. [laughter] thank you, madam speaker. Thank you, madam speaker. Whatt want to stress Speaker Pelosi said, that we are still in. She mentioned that congress is committed to take action. States are committed to take action. Cities are taking action. In the energy and Commerce Committee, which i chair and we have several members from our committee that are here with us we have already done a number of things and we plan on doing more. We passed hr nine which is the legislation in the house that says we do not want to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and we still want to be in. In addition to that, we have all we have already laid out and passed some initiatives. We passed a number of Energy Efficiency bills out of the committee, things like giving grants back to the states so they can take efficiency action, which again empowers the states to do more and the towns to do more on the local level. We also have a bill called the lift america act which deals with infrastructure needs like grid modernization and Pipeline Safety bill that deals with leaky pipelines and methane pollution. And we set out a goal in our committee in july of what we call 100 by 50. This means we are determined to draft legislation on the issues on Climate Action within our committee so we can reach a goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2050. What did i learn today . I learned the secretarygeneral has a similar goal. He talked about that European Union meeting that goal of 2050 and using that as an example for the United States and other major countries. So i felt very empowered today. When i came here to hear from others about what we can do and i believe that we are moving forward with that commitment in congress and elsewhere. Again, i want to thank the speaker for bringing us here. I think we have given out the message that we are still in, madam speaker. Speaker pelosi thank you very much. Now we will hear from the chair of the science and technology in space committee, congresswoman Eddie Bernice johnson. Thank you very much and good afternoon. I am delighted to have the experience of being here to see the thousands of people who stand together to look out for the planet. I am proud to say i am part of that group and i have not just started at this conference. Being chair of the science, space, and technology committee, we have already addressed a number of issues and we will continue. We are using sound science and we have also had the experience of many catastrophes throughout our nation that we are forced to give attention to. Also been a member of transportation infrastructure where i have focused on resilience. Even where we have the technology in the jurisdiction of my committee and it has obviously saved many lives by the information, we have not saved as much materials with infrastructure and housing are what have you because we have not really addressed it very seriously. But it is encouraging to see that people throughout this planet have come here to share ideas and get ideas and look at the exhibits and see what is new, see what we can utilize for the future to create a green planet and a lot of green jobs. Thatdismayed when i hear to clean the planet and give attention to the environment causes us to lose jobs. We have not found that in our research. I hope that we will all continue to speak out and speak loudly and help to educate, because this is every aspect of our life we are talking about. We are talking about our health and environment for all living creatures, whether it is on land, water, or air. I am delighted to be here to have this experience, and my work will continue. Thank you. Speaker pelosi thank you, madam chair. Now to the chair of the Natural Resources committee, chairman raul grijalva. Thank you madam speaker and im glad to be part of this delegation. I appreciate the opportunity. There was a comment made at the panel this morning dealing with vulnerable nations and communities. The comment was, do we delay and pay or plan and prosper . I thought thematically that was a critical comment. Vulnerability is a reality as is the urgency to do something immediately about Climate Change and quit wasting time. Legislatively, our Natural Resources committee will be moving forward with legislative packages to deal with the critical issue of Climate Change, provide adaptation and mitigation to that issue. In United States, our public lands in coastal areas are 23 of the problem and they can be 23 of the solution. We need to incorporate the issue of vulnerability. We have to incorporate the issue of human rights. We have to incorporate the issue of the necessity for clean air, clean water, Public Health protections. There should be no Climate Change discrimination. There should not be a misery index were some people get to suffer more as a consequence of not everybody doing their full part to deal with the issue of Climate Change. I look forward to it. United states needs to be and is committed in the form of the people that are here today, plus millions of others. The mast the vast majority of the American People support urgent action on Climate Change. That is the issue we are following. That is the opinion we need to have, and i am certainly glad that im here today to learn, to listen, and at the same time, to be renewed for what happens next, what happens next is to deal with the issue of Climate Change with a great degree of urgency. Thank you madam speaker. As you can see from all the presentations and as you will hear during the q a we came here to say we are still in. The fact is being in it means we are here to listen and to learn and to recognize the challenges for the most vulnerable, including the indigenous people. We heard from the scientists this morning, the scientific ofsentation, the challenge the Climate Crisis, the reality of taking action. As we take action, we want to do so inclusively and working together to think y and in freshl new ways and listening and learning from each other. With that, i would like with the spirit of opportunity, opportunity, opportunity to give you the opportunity to ask us questions. First Jeanette Newman of bloomberg. Let me just tell you that one of the privileges of being speaker is when you get a difficult question, you assign it to somebody else. [laughter] i hope this is not a difficult question. A question on u. S. Politics. During the recess week, what did democratic lawmakers from swing from theirear constituents regarding the impeachment proceedings . Speaker pelosi i appreciate your question, if you have another when you may want to ask it because we are not here to talk about impeachment or the president of the United States. We are here to talk about, i have a rule of codels when we travel abroad we do not talk about the president in a negative way, we save that for home. Nonetheless, we are here to talk positively about our agenda to save the planet for future generations. We and our congress right now are doing many more things other than reviewing the possibility of impeaching a president. Our colleagues have talked about some of the initiatives. Right now we are talking about a mexicou. S. Canada trade agreement, we are talking about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, we are talking about expanding and strengthening voting rights, we are talking about an array of legislative many of them in the communities of jurisdiction of our chairs who are here. That is only one we are legislating, we are litigating, we are investigating. We are focusing today on legislating, thank you. Now we will hear from another reporter. I skipped one. Hello, i am from the spanish newswire. In his opening remarks, the spanish president sanchez said only fanatics deny the evidence about Global Warming and the climate emergency. Would you apply this category of fanatic to someone in your country . Could be politician or corporations . Speaker pelosi i think you will have to ask president sanchez who he was referring to in that comment. Does anyone want to comment on any of that . [laughter] it is, i would say three words that describe how we address this. Science, science, and science. And maybe four, science again. If we can stick with the science we can come up with some Sane Solutions to it all. Reuters . Dont hesitate to chime in. Hello, thank you. I wanted to ask, if given the strong advocacy from some democratic, many democratic president ial candidates for a Green New Deal, what it is about that plan that is stopping you from embracing the idea and whether you could back any of the climate proposals from candidates like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren and if overall you think a Green New Deal is necessary . Thank you very much. Speaker pelosi as i said earlier, i was at the earth summit in 1992. Ive been working on this issue for a very, very long time. When i was speaker the first time, i established a select committee on Climate Crisis. We passed, under the leadership of our house Congressional Democrats and also signed by president bush, the greatest energy bill in the history of our country, the equivalent of taking millions of cars off the road, reducing admissions reducing emissions by raising the standards. The idea of a very comprehensive strategy on this is very important to all of us. I salute the enthusiasm that it has engendered. I do think the idea of working together is very, very important. I think there are many aspects of the Green New Deal that we have all been advocating for a long time. We do want, though, to have our friends in labor at the table, our friends in the labor movement, that is. And we want to have the private sector at the table and the rest so that we can produce results. This is a generational and to humanity. Hreat i salute what they are doing, but in terms of how we go forward, that is what congresswoman castors selectivity on climate is doing. Then we will recommend to the legislative committee for legislative actions. Many of those aspects, in terms of the two president ial candidates, i do not follow everything so i do not know what you are referencing exactly, so i cannot say whether i support it. It is probably something within the realm of what we have all been advocating for a long time. Toill defer to the others see if any of our colleagues have something to add on that. I will start by saying we embrace the ambition of the Green New Deal. What is happening now in the United States congress is a hardworking that is necessary to develop the policy proposal, the detailed policy proposal in the Energy Sector how we deal carbonized how we de the Energy Sector, the same for the transportation sector, agriculture, Energy Efficiency. When you develop detailed policy proposals, you are going another layer deeper. Then all of the legislative committees over the coming months will turn those policy proposals into concrete legislation. We hope to build bipartisan support for a number of them. We must do this with a sense of urgency. All of the science points us in the direction that we do not have time to waste. So we do not intend to waste any time. The time for action is now. Isnt it refreshing to have in thential candidates United States of america debating the fine points of Climate Action . It is inspiring and we intend to meet the challenge. Im a new freshman member. I spent 20 years in the Energy Industry before i got into this new line of work. Thatld submit to you giving access to energy has been our single greatest success as a species and the hardest problem we have ever tackled. We would not sustain that population and the standard of living we all have in this room without figuring out how to do that. Figuring out how to maintain that access to energy in a zero carbon way is an order of magnitude harder. What has happened with the youth activism and what has happened with the discussions across the political spectrum about people who are saying this problem is so urgent that we cannot afford to get bogged down in the the first, i accept part of that. We have to deal with the urgency. But it is a hard and complicated problem. I am delighted we are talking about it. But it is going to be complicated and it is going to take all of our collective work. If i could . I do not think there is anything inconsistent with what we are trying to achieve and the Green New Deal. If you listen to what the Green New Deal says, it talks about 2030. It primarily talks about 2030 and the power sector. You mentioned a president ial candidate. I remember when Bernie Sanders, for example, talked about the Green New Deal and said 2030 for the power sector, 2050 four Everything Else beyond the power sector. Even he, in discussing the Green New Deal, and he is one of the champions, is very consistent with what we are saying when we say 100 by 2050. It is also consistent with what the secretarygeneral said today. He used the European Union and said they are trying to achieve 45 reduction in Greenhouse Gases by the end of the next decade, 2030. But he said it will take us until 2050 to get to carbon neutral, which is the same thing as our 100 by 50 in the energy and Commerce Committee. None of this is inconsistent. We have to dispel this notion that we are not incorporating the Green New Deal and a lot of the ideas of the people who are so enthusiastic about it. I do not think you should in any way think anything we are saying is inconsistent, i really dont. Speaker pelosi i want to add that one of the many things we have in common is we are not about incrementalism. This is about being transformative. That is what this conference is about as well, being transformative in the solutions we advance because time is taking its toll on the planet. We thank them for the enthusiasm and the other enthusiasms that are out there as well, that have been out there for a long time and growing impatient, and rightfully show rightfully so. The reporter from the Financial Times . Which one . Speaker if i could tempt you to talk about an International Issue . President trump announced today tariffs on argentinian and brazilian aluminum and seal. Aluminum and steel. There is obviously an International Issue, trade issue. It is not just a domestic politics issue. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that in terms of trade tensions and international cooperation. That is Speaker Pelosi that is news to me. I did not realize President Trump had done this. I do not know the context or purpose of why he is doing that. I do think when we are talking about trade, we have to talk way for a example, china is a big issue for all of us on trade. I think the way we can counter some of the violations of our own trade relationships, the violation of our trade relationship with china, is to do so in a multilateral way. I do not know why the president did what he did this morning are i do not know why the president did what he did this morning or what the justification was. Do any of you . No, you are breaking news for us here. Lets just say globalization has its challenges. We all need to recognize how much leverage we would have if we worked together in meeting the challenges of those who do abuse our trade relationships. And i would just have to see what his basis is for what he did. As i said earlier, we are hoping to come near to conclusion on a u. S. Mexico canada trade agreement. We have some issues that relate to enforcement, because if you do not have enforcement, you just have a nice conversation and a list of nice things. But you do not have a fair deal for workers in any of the countries. That is what we want, not just a good deal for american workers, but for all workers so that everyone can thrive. That has an impact on our economies, on migration, on international relations, and again puts a better face on globalization, which is inevitable, as we know. Thank you all very much. I want to thank spain for its hospitality. Chile for being the intellectual resource in all of. His, as well as United Nations the secretarygeneral showed a great vision for the future in terms of climate, he showed a great knowledge of the challenges we face and the need for action now, and hes showed Strategic Thinking about how to get it all done. Again, we cannot do it without working together, seeing the opportunity there for everyone. Does anyone want to say anything . We are still in. Speaker pelosi we are still in. Thank you all. Live tuesday on the cspan networks, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee looks at the future of u. S. Policy toward russia. That is at 10 00 a. M. On cspan. At 2 00, the u. S. House returns for work on several bills, including legislation regarding citizenship for children of Service Members and Civil Servants born overseas. , the Senate Returns at 10 00 to continue work on judicial and executive nominations. The 30 a. M. On cspan3, Senate Armed Services Committee Meets to review the military Privatized Housing program. And at 3 00, a Senate Judiciary subcommittee examines trademark system fraud. The house impeachment inquiry hearings continue this week on cspan. Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee will vote in a closeddoor session to send their findings on President Trump to the House Judiciary Committee. Then on wednesday, live at 10 00 eastern, the House Judiciary Committee led by chairman nadler will hold a Public Inquiry hearing on the constitutional grounds for impeachment and we will hear testimony from law professors. A professor from harvard, a professor from stanford, Michael Gearhart from the university of North Carolina, and Jonathan Turley of the George Washington University Law school. Follow the impeachment inquiry, watch live on cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app. Campaign 2020 bus team is traveling across the country asking voters what issues should president ial candidates address . What i want the candidates to focus on my not be popular, but gerrymandering, because it impacts our local elections and our Congressional Elections and it is so out of hand in states like texas and North Carolina where your vote doesnt matter if the district has been gerrymandered against you. President ial candidates to talk about the Real Estate Industry. The Real Estate Industry has so much control over the land in this country and our big real estate executives who are able think wee land and i need more Community Control of things. The Real Estate Industry has a long history of being an oligarchic force. To see thelike candidates focus more on how to fix the corruption in our system. Passing a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics to reverse Citizens Solutions to look at regarding the corruption in our politics and the rampant money running through d. C. And restoring our democracy. Candidates to focus more on policy. I would like to hear about cutting back the military, the militaryindustrial complex. I think it is something that would benefit our region because we have a lot of people forced into the military and then they never come back home. I also think we need to cut spending in the military. Year. Almost 1 trillion a i think it would help the Immigration Crisis because i think we need to stop the imperialist activities of overthrowing people in Central America and replacing them with right wing dictators causing the migrant crisis. This is from the road on cspan. Heldnator Elizabeth Warren a town hall in iowa city on the campus of the university of iowa. She was introduced by supporters and Campaign Organizers from the area and then spoke on why she was running for president. Afterwards, she took questions from the audience. [applause] good afternoon. I am chair of the Johnson County democrats. I am not here to make an endorsement but im here to welcome you. I bet i know the reason you are here. Is you want to make a change in the way our state and our government in washington is being run. [applause] absolutely. What is the best way to do that . Get involved. You can get