I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 794 
To require the President to declare a national climate emergency under 
the National Emergencies Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 4, 2021 
Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mrs. 
NAPOLITANO, Ms. MENG, Mr. WELCH, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. NADLER, 
Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. LEVIN
of Michigan, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. 
LOWENTHAL, Ms. NORTON, Mr. LEVIN of California, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. 
DESAULNIER, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. JONES, 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. COHEN, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. BOWMAN, 
and Ms. JAYAPAL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the 
Committees on Financial Services, Education and Labor, Energy and 
Commerce, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Small Business, for a pe-
riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con-
sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To require the President to declare a national climate emer-
gency under the National Emergencies Act, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Climate 
Emergency Act of 2021’’ or the ‘‘Climate Emergency Act 
of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The years 2010 to 2019 were the hottest 
decade on record. 
(2) Global atmospheric concentrations of the 
primary global warming pollutant, carbon dioxide— 
(A) have increased by 40 percent since 
preindustrial times, from 280 parts per million 
to 415 parts per million, primarily due to 
human activities, including the burning of fossil 
fuels and deforestation; 
(B) are rising at a rate of 2 to 3 parts per 
million annually; and 
(C) must be reduced to not more than 350 
parts per million, and likely lower, ‘‘if humanity 
wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on 
which civilization developed and to which life on 
Earth is adapted,’’ according to former Na-
tional Aeronautics and Space Administration 
climatologist Dr. James Hansen. 
(3) Global atmospheric concentrations of other 
global warming pollutants, including methane, ni-
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trous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons, have also in-
creased substantially since preindustrial times, pri-
marily due to human activities, including the burn-
ing of fossil fuels. 
(4) Climate science and observations of climate 
change impacts, including ocean warming, ocean 
acidification, floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme 
weather, demonstrate that a global rise in tempera-
ture of 1.5 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels 
is already having dangerous impacts on human pop-
ulations and the environment. 
(5) According to the 2018 National Climate As-
sessment, climate change due to global warming has 
caused, and is expected to continue to cause, sub-
stantial interference with and growing losses to 
human health and safety, infrastructure, property, 
industry, recreation, natural resources, agricultural 
systems, and quality of life in the United States. 
(6) According to the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration, climate change is already 
increasing the frequency of extreme weather and 
other climate-related disasters, including drought, 
wildfire, and storms that include precipitation. 
(7) Climate-related natural disasters have in-
creased exponentially over the past decade, costing 
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the United States more than double the long-term 
average during the period of 2014 through 2018, 
with total costs of natural disasters during that pe-
riod of approximately $100,000,000,000 per year. 
(8) According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, there are wide-ranging, acute, 
and fatal public health consequences from climate 
change that impact communities across the United 
States. 
(9) According to the National Climate and 
Health Assessment of the United States Global 
Change Research Program, climate change is a sig-
nificant threat to the health of the people of the 
United States, leading to increased— 
(A) temperature-related deaths and ill-
nesses; 
(B) air quality impacts; 
(C) extreme weather events; 
(D) numbers of vector-borne diseases; 
(E) waterborne illnesses; 
(F) food safety, nutrition, and distribution 
complications; and 
(G) mental health and well-being concerns. 
(10) The consequences of climate change al-
ready disproportionately impact frontline commu-
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nities and endanger populations made especially vul-
nerable by existing exposure to extreme weather 
events, such as children, the elderly, and individuals 
with pre-existing disabilities and health conditions. 
(11) Individuals and families on the frontlines 
of climate change across the United States, includ-
ing territories, living with income inequality and pov-
erty, institutional racism, inequity on the basis of 
gender and sexual orientation, poor infrastructure, 
and lack of access to health care, housing, clean 
water, and food security are often in close proximity 
to environmental stressors or sources of pollution, 
particularly communities of color, indigenous com-
munities, and low-income communities, which— 
(A) are often the first exposed to the im-
pacts of climate change; 
(B) experience outsized risk because of the 
close proximity of the community to environ-
mental hazards and stressors, in addition to 
collocation with waste and other sources of pol-
lution; and 
(C) have the fewest resources to mitigate 
those impacts or to relocate, which will exacer-
bate preexisting challenges. 
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(12) According to Dr. Beverly Wright and Dr. 
Robert Bullard, ‘‘environmental and public health 
threats from natural and human-made disasters are 
not randomly distributed, affecting some commu-
nities more than others,’’ and therefore a response 
to the climate emergency necessitates the adoption 
of policies and processes rooted in principles of ra-
cial equity, self-determination, and democracy, as 
well as the fundamental human rights of all people 
to clean air and water, healthy food, adequate land, 
education, and shelter, as promulgated in the 1991 
Principles of Environmental Justice. 
(13) Climate change holds grave and immediate 
consequences not just for the population of the 
United States, including territories, but for commu-
nities across the world, particularly those commu-
nities in the Global South on the frontlines of the 
climate crisis that are at risk of forced displacement. 
(14) Communities in rural, urban, and subur-
ban areas are all dramatically affected by climate 
change, though the specific economic, health, social, 
and environmental impacts may be different. 
(15) The Department of State, the Department 
of Defense, and the intelligence community have 
identified climate change as a threat to national se-
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curity, and the Department of Homeland Security 
views climate change as a top homeland security 
risk. 
(16) Climate change is a threat multiplier with 
the potential— 
(A) to exacerbate many of the challenges 
the United States already confronts, including 
conflicts over scarce resources, conditions con-
ducive to violent extremism, and the spread of 
infectious diseases; and 
(B) to produce new, unforeseeable chal-
lenges in the future. 
(17) The United Nations Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change projected in 2018 that the 
Earth could warm 1.5 degrees Celsius above 
preindustrial levels as early as 2030. 
(18) The climatic changes resulting from global 
warming 
above 
1.5 
degrees 
Celsius 
above 
preindustrial levels, including changes resulting from 
global warming of more than 2 degrees Celsius 
above preindustrial levels, are projected to result in 
irreversible, catastrophic changes to public health, 
livelihoods, quality of life, food security, water sup-
plies, human security, and economic growth. 
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(19) The United Nations Intergovernmental 
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Eco-
system Services found in 2019 that human-induced 
climate change is pushing the planet toward the 
sixth mass species extinction, which threatens the 
food security, water supply, and well-being of billions 
of people. 
(20) According to climate scientists, limiting 
global warming to not more than 1.5 degrees Celsius 
above preindustrial levels, and likely lower, is most 
likely to avoid irreversible and catastrophic climate 
change. 
(21) Even with global warming up to 1.5 de-
grees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the planet is 
projected to experience— 
(A) a significant rise in sea levels; 
(B) extraordinary loss of biodiversity; and 
(C) intensifying droughts, floods, wildfires, 
and other extreme weather events. 
(22) According to climate scientists, addressing 
the climate emergency will require an economically 
just phase-out of the use of oil, gas, and coal in 
order to keep the carbon that is the primary con-
stituent of fossil fuels in the ground and out of the 
atmosphere. 
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(23) The United Nations Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change has determined that lim-
iting warming through emissions reduction and car-
bon sequestration will require rapid and immediate 
acceleration and proliferation of ‘‘far-reaching, 
multilevel, and cross-sectoral climate mitigation’’ 
and ‘‘transitions in energy, land, urban and rural in-
frastructure (including transport and buildings), and 
industrial systems’’. 
(24) In the United States, massive, comprehen-
sive, and urgent governmental action is required im-
mediately to achieve the transitions of those systems 
in response to the severe existing and projected eco-
nomic, social, public health, and national security 
threats posed by the climate crisis. 
(25) The massive scope and scale of action nec-
essary to stabilize the climate will require unprece-
dented levels of public awareness, engagement, and 
deliberation to develop and implement effective, just, 
and equitable policies to address the climate crisis. 
(26) The Constitution of the United States pro-
tects the fundamental rights to life, liberty, property, 
and equal protection of the laws. 
(27) A climate system capable of sustaining 
human life is fundamental to a free and ordered so-
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ciety, and is preservative of fundamental rights, in-
cluding the rights to life, liberty, property, personal 
security, family autonomy, bodily integrity, and the 
ability to learn, practice, and transmit cultural and 
religious traditions. 
(28) The United States has a proud history of 
collaborative, constructive, massive-scale Federal 
mobilizations of resources and labor in order to solve 
great challenges, such as the Interstate Highway 
System, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Reconstruc-
tion, the New Deal, and World War II. 
(29) The United States stands uniquely poised 
to substantially grow the economy and attain social 
and health benefits from a massive mobilization of 
resources and labor that far outweigh the costs cli-
mate change will inflict as a result of inaction. 
(30) Millions of middle class jobs can be created 
by raising labor standards through project labor 
agreements and protecting and expanding the right 
of workers to organize so that workers in the United 
States and the communities of those workers are 
guaranteed a strong, viable economic future in a 
zero-emissions economy that guarantees good jobs at 
fair union wages with quality benefits. 
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(31) Frontline communities, Tribal govern-
ments and communities, people of color, and labor 
unions must be equitably and actively engaged in the 
climate mobilization, in such a way that aligns with 
the 1996 Jemez Principles of Democratic Orga-
nizing, and prioritized through local climate mitiga-
tion and adaptation planning, policy, and program 
delivery so that workers in the United States, and 
the communities of those workers, are guaranteed a 
strong, viable economic future. 
(32) A number of local jurisdictions and gov-
ernments in the United States, including New York 
City and Los Angeles, and across the world, includ-
ing the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, 
Portugal, and Canada, have already declared a cli-
mate emergency, and a number of State and local 
governments are considering declaring a climate 
emergency. 
(33) State, local, and Tribal governments must 
be supported in efforts to hold to account those 
whose activities have deepened and accelerated the 
climate crisis and who have benefitted from delayed 
action to address the climate change emergency and 
to develop a clean energy economy. 
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(34) A collaborative response to the climate cri-
sis will require the Federal Government to work with 
international, State, and local governments, includ-
ing with those governments that have declared a cli-
mate emergency, to reverse the impacts of the cli-
mate crisis. 
(35) The United States has an obligation, as a 
primary driver of accelerated climate change, to mo-
bilize at emergency speed to restore a safe climate 
and environment not just for communities of the 
United States but for communities across the world, 
particularly those on the frontlines of the climate 
crisis which have least contributed to the crisis, and 
to account for global and community impacts of any 
actions it takes in response to the climate crisis. 
SEC. 3. EMERGENCY DECLARATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall declare a na-
tional emergency under section 201 of the National Emer-
gencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1621) with respect to climate 
change. 
(b) RESPONSE.—In responding to the national emer-
gency declared pursuant to subsection (a), the President 
shall ensure that the Federal Government— 
(1) invests in large scale mitigation and resil-
iency projects, including projects that— 
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(A) upgrade the public infrastructure to 
expand access to clean and affordable energy, 
transportation, 
high-speed 
broadband, 
and 
water, particularly for public systems; 
(B) modernize and retrofit millions of 
homes, schools, offices, and industrial buildings 
to cut pollution and costs; 
(C) invest in public health, in preparation 
for and in response to increasingly extreme cli-
matic events; 
(D) protect and restore wetlands, forests, 
public lands, and other natural climate solu-
tions; 
(E) create opportunities for farmers and 
rural communities, including by bolstering re-
generative agriculture, and invest in local and 
regional food systems that support farmers, ag-
ricultural workers, healthy soil, and climate re-
silience; 
(F) develop and transform the industrial 
base of the United States, while creating high- 
skill, high-wage manufacturing jobs across the 
country, including by expanding manufacturing 
of clean technologies, reducing industrial pollu-
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tion, and prioritizing clean, domestic manufac-
turing for the aforementioned investments; and 
(G) establish new employment programs, 
as necessary, to meet the goals described in 
subparagraphs (A) through (F); 
(2) makes investments that enable— 
(A) a racially and socially just transition to 
a clean energy economy by ensuring that at 
least 40 percent of investments flow to histori-
cally disadvantaged communities; 
(B) greenhouse gas emission reductions; 
(C) resilience in the face of climate change 
impacts; 
(D) a racially and socially just transition 
to a clean energy economy; 
(E) small business support, especially for 
women and minority-owned businesses; and 
(F) the expansion of public services; 
(3) avoids solutions that— 
(A) increase inequality; 
(B) exacerbate, or fail to reduce, pollution 
at source; 
(C) violate human rights; 
(D) privatize public lands, water, or na-
ture; 
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(E) expedite the destruction of ecosystems; 
or 
(F) decrease union density or membership; 
(4) creates jobs that conform to labor standards 
that— 
(A) provide family sustaining wages and 
benefits; 
(B) ensure safe workplaces; 
(C) protect the rights of workers to orga-
nize; and 
(D) prioritize the hiring of local workers to 
ensure wages stay within communities and 
stimulate local economic activity; 
(5) prioritizes local and equitable hiring and 
contracting that creates opportunities for— 
(A) communities of color and indigenous 
communities; 
(B) women; 
(C) veterans; 
(D) LGBTQIA+ individuals; 
(E) disabled and chronically ill individuals; 
(F) formerly incarcerated individuals; and 
(G) otherwise marginalized communities; 
(6) combats environmental injustice, including 
by— 
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(A) curtailing air, water, and land pollu-
tion from all sources; 
(B) removing health hazards from commu-
nities; 
(C) remediating the cumulative health and 
environmental impacts of toxic pollution and cli-
mate change; 
(D) ensuring that affected communities 
have equitable access to public health resources 
that have been systemically denied to commu-
nities of color and Indigenous communities; and 
(E) upholding the fundamental rights of 
all Americans from the perils of climate change; 
and 
(7) reinvests in existing public sector institu-
tions and creates new public sector institutions, in-
spired by and improving upon New Deal-era institu-
tions by addressing historic inequities, to strategi-
cally and coherently mobilize and channel invest-
ments at the scale and pace required by the national 
emergency declared pursuant to subsection (a). 
(c) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 
of enactment of this Act, and every year thereafter, the 
President shall submit to Congress a report describing ac-
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