Climate Emergency Act of 2021
Bill: H.R.794 | Sponsor: Rep. Blumenauer, Earl (D-OR)
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
National Climate Emergency Act of 2021 or the Climate Emergency Act of 2021
This bill directs the President to declare a national emergency with respect to climate change.
The President, in responding to the emergency, must ensure that the government
The President shall report annually on actions taken in response to the national emergency.

To require the President to declare a national climate emergency under 
         the National Emergencies Act, and for other purposes.

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

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 National Aeronautics and Space 
                Administration climatologist Dr. James Hansen.
            (3) Global atmospheric concentrations of other global 
        warming pollutants, including methane, nitrous oxide, and 
        hydrofluorocarbons, have also increased substantially since 
        preindustrial times, primarily due to human activities, 
        including the burning 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 temperature of 1.5 degree Celsius above 
        preindustrial levels is already having dangerous impacts on 
        human populations and the environment.
            (5) According to the 2018 National Climate Assessment, 
        climate change due to global warming has caused, and is 
        expected to continue to cause, substantial 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 Atmospheric 
        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 increased 
        exponentially over the past decade, costing 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 period of approximately $100,000,000,000 per year.
            (8) According to the Centers for Disease Control 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 significant threat to the health of the people of 
        the United States, leading to increased--
                    (A) temperature-related deaths and illnesses;
                    (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 already 
        disproportionately impact frontline communities and endanger 
        populations made especially vulnerable 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, including territories, living 
        with income inequality and poverty, 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 communities, and low-income 
        communities, which--
                    (A) are often the first exposed to the impacts of 
                climate change;
                    (B) experience outsized risk because of the close 
                proximity of the community to environmental hazards and 
                stressors, in addition to collocation with waste and 
                other sources of pollution; and
                    (C) have the fewest resources to mitigate those 
                impacts or to relocate, which will exacerbate 
                preexisting challenges.
            (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 communities more than others,'' and therefore a 
        response to the climate emergency necessitates the adoption of 
        policies and processes rooted in principles of racial 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 communities across the world, particularly 
        those communities in the Global South on the frontlines of the 
        climate crisis that are at risk of forced displacement.
            (14) Communities in rural, urban, and suburban 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 security, 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 conducive to violent 
                extremism, and the spread of infectious diseases; and
                    (B) to produce new, unforeseeable challenges 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 supplies, 
        human security, and economic growth.
            (19) The United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy 
        Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem 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 degrees 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 constituent of fossil fuels in the ground 
        and out of the atmosphere.
            (23) The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
        Change has determined that limiting warming through emissions 
        reduction and carbon 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 infrastructure 
        (including transport and buildings), and industrial systems''.
            (24) In the United States, massive, comprehensive, and 
        urgent governmental action is required immediately to achieve 
        the transitions of those systems in response to the severe 
        existing and projected economic, social, public health, and 
        national security threats posed by the climate crisis.
            (25) The massive scope and scale of action necessary to 
        stabilize the climate will require unprecedented 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 protects 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 society, and is preservative 
        of fundamental rights, including 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, Reconstruction, 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 climate 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.
            (31) Frontline communities, Tribal governments 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 Organizing, and prioritized through local climate 
        mitigation 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 governments in the 
        United States, including New York City and Los Angeles, and 
        across the world, including the United Kingdom, the Republic of 
        Ireland, Portugal, and Canada, have already declared a climate 
        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.
            (34) A collaborative response to the climate crisis will 
        require the Federal Government to work with international, 
        State, and local governments, including with those governments 
        that have declared a climate emergency, to reverse the impacts 
        of the climate crisis.
            (35) The United States has an obligation, as a primary 
        driver of accelerated climate change, to mobilize 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 national emergency 
under section 201 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1621) with 
respect to climate change.
    (b) Response.--In responding to the national emergency declared 
pursuant to subsection (a), the President shall ensure that the Federal 
Government--
            (1) invests in large scale mitigation and resiliency 
        projects, including projects that--
                    (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 climatic events;
                    (D) protect and restore wetlands, forests, public 
                lands, and other natural climate solutions;
                    (E) create opportunities for farmers and rural 
                communities, including by bolstering regenerative 
                agriculture, and invest in local and regional food 
                systems that support farmers, agricultural workers, 
                healthy soil, and climate resilience;
                    (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 pollution, and prioritizing clean, domestic 
                manufacturing 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 historically 
                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 nature;
                    (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 organize; 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--
                    (A) curtailing air, water, and land pollution from 
                all sources;
                    (B) removing health hazards from communities;
                    (C) remediating the cumulative health and 
                environmental impacts of toxic pollution and climate 
                change;
                    (D) ensuring that affected communities have 
                equitable access to public health resources that have 
                been systemically denied to communities 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 institutions and 
        creates new public sector institutions, inspired by and 
        improving upon New Deal-era institutions by addressing historic 
        inequities, to strategically and coherently mobilize and 
        channel investments 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 actions taken in response to the national 
emergency declared pursuant to subsection (a).
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