II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1743 

To direct the President to develop a plan for the United States to meet 

its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 5, 2019 

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. CARPER, Mr. 

VAN HOLLEN, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. MERKLEY, 

Ms. SMITH, Mr. SANDERS, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. HIRONO, 

Mr. BROWN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. REED, Mr. 

SCHATZ, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. COONS, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. STABENOW, 

Mr. KAINE, Mrs. MURRAY, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. 

UDALL, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. KING, Mr. CARDIN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, 

Ms. ROSEN, Mr. CASEY, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. WARNER, Ms. SINEMA, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. BENNET, Mr. 

PETERS, Mr. TESTER, Mr. JONES, and Ms. CANTWELL) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To direct the President to develop a plan for the United 

States to meet its nationally determined contribution 

under the Paris Agreement, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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•S 1743 IS

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Climate 

3 Accountability Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) In Paris, on December 12, 2015, parties to 

7 the United Nations Framework Convention on Cli8 mate Change (UNFCCC) reached a landmark agree9 ment to combat climate change and to accelerate 

10 and intensify the actions and investments needed for 

11 a sustainable low carbon future. 

12 (2) The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to 

13 strengthen— 

14 (A) international cooperation among par15 ties on reducing global greenhouse gas emis16 sions to mitigate the threat of climate change 

17 by keeping a global average temperature in18 crease below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-indus19 trial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the 

20 temperature increase even further to 1.5 de21 grees Celsius; and 

22 (B) ambition towards achieving global 

23 greenhouse gas emission reductions sufficient to 

24 reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement by 

25 requiring parties to make their own nationally 


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1 determined contribution (NDC) of greenhouse 

2 gas emission reductions. 

3 (3) The Paris Agreement is the premier inter4 governmental forum and mechanism at the disposal 

5 of the United States for protecting and advancing 

6 United States strategic and economic interests in a 

7 changing, low-carbon, global economy. 

8 (4) The enhanced transparency and reporting 

9 framework established under the Paris Agreement 

10 will provide an effective means of holding other par11 ties accountable for their commitments. 

12 (5) The United States is playing a leading role 

13 in the development of procedures and guidelines to 

14 implement the transparency framework under the 

15 Paris Agreement. 

16 (6) Since May 31, 2017, more than 400 United 

17 States mayors have adopted the Paris Agreement 

18 goals for their cities and 24 United States governors 

19 have formed a bipartisan coalition to realize the 

20 Paris Agreement goals at the State level. 

21 (7) The Paris Agreement— 

22 (A) notes the importance of ‘‘climate jus23 tice’’ when mitigating and adapting to climate 

24 change; and 


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1 (B) recognizes ‘‘the need for an effective 

2 and progressive response to the urgent threat of 

3 climate change’’. 

4 (8) The cost of inaction on climate change will 

5 have devastating impacts to the United States econ6 omy, costing billions of dollars in lost GDP. 

7 (9) The Paris Agreement further requires each 

8 party to update its nationally determined contribu9 tion every 5 years, and these NDC should reflect the 

10 party’s highest possible ambition. 

11 (10) The United States communicated its first 

12 nationally determined contribution to achieve an 

13 economy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas 

14 emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level 

15 in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its emis16 sions by 28 percent. 

17 (11) A number of existing laws, regulations, 

18 and other mandatory measures in the United States 

19 are relevant to achieving this target, including the 

20 Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), the Energy 

21 Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–486), and the 

22 Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 

23 (Public Law 110–140). 

24 (12) On June 1, 2017, President Donald J. 

25 Trump announced his intention to withdraw the 


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1 United States from the Paris Agreement, negotiate 

2 our way back into Paris, or ‘‘negotiate a new deal’’. 

3 (13) Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement 

4 would leave the United States as the only UNFCCC 

5 member state that is not a signatory to the Paris 

6 Agreement. 

7 (14) Dozens of foreign heads of state have ex8 pressed support for the United States to remain a 

9 party to the Paris Agreement. 

10 (15) Leading companies across major economic 

11 sectors believe that the participation of the United 

12 States in the Paris Agreement strengthens United 

13 States employment, growth, and competitiveness and 

14 that withdrawal from the Agreement would put 

15 United States companies at a competitive disadvan16 tage. 

17 (16) Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, 

18 the earliest possible effective withdrawal date by the 

19 United States is November 4, 2020. However, the 

20 United States is still obligated to maintain certain 

21 commitments under the United Nations Framework 

22 Convention on Climate Change, such as continuing 

23 to report its emissions to the United Nations. 


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1 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS TO ADVANCE THE 

2 WITHDRAWAL OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 

3 THE PARIS AGREEMENT. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi5 sion of law, no funds are authorized to be appropriated, 

6 obligated, or expended to take any action to advance the 

7 withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agree8 ment. 

9 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Subsection (a) shall 

10 not be construed to constrain or prohibit the United States 

11 Government from participating in the implementation and 

12 execution of the Paris Agreement, including meeting cur13 rent obligations under the Paris Agreements and the 

14 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

15 Change. 

16 SEC. 4. PLAN FOR THE UNITED STATES TO MEET ITS NA17 TIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTION 

18 UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 

20 date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall de21 velop and submit to the appropriate congressional commit22 tees and make available to the public a plan for the United 

23 States to meet its nationally determined contribution 

24 under the Paris Agreement. The plan shall describe— 

25 (1) how the United States will achieve an econ26 omy-wide target of reducing its greenhouse gas 


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1 emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level 

2 by 2025; and 

3 (2) how the United States will use the Paris 

4 Agreement’s transparency provisions to confirm that 

5 other parties to the Agreement with major econo6 mies are fulfilling their announced contributions to 

7 the Agreement. 

8 (b) UPDATES TO PLAN.—Not later than one year 

9 after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually 

10 thereafter, the President shall submit to the appropriate 

11 congressional committees and make available to the public 

12 an updated plan under subsection (a). 

13 (c) SUCCESSIVE NATIONALLY DETERMINED CON14 TRIBUTIONS.—The updated plan developed pursuant to 

15 subsection (c) may serve as the United States’ successive 

16 NDC, in accordance with Article 4.3 of the Paris Agree17 ment, and may be communicated to the United Nations 

18 Secretary-General in accordance with Article 4.9 of the 

19 Paris Agreement. 

20 (d) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES

21 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate con22 gressional committees’’ means— 

23 (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the 

24 Committee on Environment and Public Works, the 

25 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the 


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1 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, 

2 and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; 

3 and 

4 (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 

5 Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Com6 mittee on Agriculture, and the Committee on Appro7 priations of the House of Representatives. 

8 SEC. 5. PARIS AGREEMENT DEFINED. 

9 In this Act, the term ‘‘Paris Agreement’’ means the 

10 decision by the United Nations Framework Convention on 

11 Climate Change’s 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, 

12 France, adopted December 12, 2015. 

Æ 


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