Title: International Climate Accountability Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
International Climate Accountability Act
This bill prohibits implementation of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the United Nations agreement to address climate change adopted December 12, 2015. The President shall annually report to Congress a plan for how the United States will achieve its goals to reduce greenhouse gases under the agreement.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1743 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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.

    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 ``International Climate Accountability 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In Paris, on December 12, 2015, parties to the United 
        Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached 
        a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate 
        and intensify the actions and investments needed for a 
        sustainable low carbon future.
            (2) The Paris Agreement's central aim is to strengthen--
                    (A) international cooperation among parties on 
                reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate 
                the threat of climate change by keeping a global 
                average temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius 
                above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to 
                limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 
                degrees Celsius; and
                    (B) ambition towards achieving global greenhouse 
                gas emission reductions sufficient to reaching the 
                goals of the Paris Agreement by requiring parties to 
                make their own nationally determined contribution (NDC) 
                of greenhouse gas emission reductions.
            (3) The Paris Agreement is the premier intergovernmental 
        forum and mechanism at the disposal of the United States for 
        protecting and advancing United States strategic and economic 
        interests in a changing, low-carbon, global economy.
            (4) The enhanced transparency and reporting framework 
        established under the Paris Agreement will provide an effective 
        means of holding other parties accountable for their 
        commitments.
            (5) The United States is playing a leading role in the 
        development of procedures and guidelines to implement the 
        transparency framework under the Paris Agreement.
            (6) Since May 31, 2017, more than 400 United States mayors 
        have adopted the Paris Agreement goals for their cities and 24 
        United States governors have formed a bipartisan coalition to 
        realize the Paris Agreement goals at the State level.
            (7) The Paris Agreement--
                    (A) notes the importance of ``climate justice'' 
                when mitigating and adapting to climate change; and
                    (B) recognizes ``the need for an effective and 
                progressive response to the urgent threat of climate 
                change''.
            (8) The cost of inaction on climate change will have 
        devastating impacts to the United States economy, costing 
        billions of dollars in lost GDP.
            (9) The Paris Agreement further requires each party to 
        update its nationally determined contribution every 5 years, 
        and these NDC should reflect the party's highest possible 
        ambition.
            (10) The United States communicated its first nationally 
        determined contribution to achieve an economy-wide target of 
        reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 
        its 2005 level in 2025 and to make best efforts to reduce its 
        emissions by 28 percent.
            (11) A number of existing laws, regulations, and other 
        mandatory measures in the United States are relevant to 
        achieving this target, including the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 
        7401 et seq.), the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-
        486), and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 
        (Public Law 110-140).
            (12) On June 1, 2017, President Donald J. Trump announced 
        his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris 
        Agreement, negotiate our way back into Paris, or ``negotiate a 
        new deal''.
            (13) Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement would leave the 
        United States as the only UNFCCC member state that is not a 
        signatory to the Paris Agreement.
            (14) Dozens of foreign heads of state have expressed 
        support for the United States to remain a party to the Paris 
        Agreement.
            (15) Leading companies across major economic sectors 
        believe that the participation of the United States in the 
        Paris Agreement strengthens United States employment, growth, 
        and competitiveness and that withdrawal from the Agreement 
        would put United States companies at a competitive 
        disadvantage.
            (16) Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the earliest 
        possible effective withdrawal date by the United States is 
        November 4, 2020. However, the United States is still obligated 
        to maintain certain commitments under the United Nations 
        Framework Convention on Climate Change, such as continuing to 
        report its emissions to the United Nations.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS TO ADVANCE THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE 
              UNITED STATES FROM THE PARIS AGREEMENT.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no 
funds are authorized to be appropriated, obligated, or expended to take 
any action to advance the withdrawal of the United States from the 
Paris Agreement.
    (b) Rule of Construction.--Subsection (a) shall not be construed to 
constrain or prohibit the United States Government from participating 
in the implementation and execution of the Paris Agreement, including 
meeting current obligations under the Paris Agreements and the United 
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

SEC. 4. PLAN FOR THE UNITED STATES TO MEET ITS NATIONALLY DETERMINED 
              CONTRIBUTION UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 120 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the President shall develop and submit to the 
appropriate congressional committees and make available to the public a 
plan for the United States to meet its nationally determined 
contribution under the Paris Agreement. The plan shall describe--
            (1) how the United States will achieve an economy-wide 
        target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 
        percent below its 2005 level by 2025; and
            (2) how the United States will use the Paris Agreement's 
        transparency provisions to confirm that other parties to the 
        Agreement with major economies are fulfilling their announced 
        contributions to the Agreement.
    (b) Updates to Plan.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the President shall 
submit to the appropriate congressional committees and make available 
to the public an updated plan under subsection (a).
    (c) Successive Nationally Determined Contributions.--The updated 
plan developed pursuant to subsection (c) may serve as the United 
States' successive NDC, in accordance with Article 4.3 of the Paris 
Agreement, and may be communicated to the United Nations Secretary-
General in accordance with Article 4.9 of the Paris Agreement.
    (d) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section, 
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Committee on 
        Environment and Public Works, the Committee on Energy and 
        Natural Resources, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
        Forestry, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; 
        and
            (2) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on 
        Energy and Commerce, the Committee on Agriculture, and the 
        Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.

SEC. 5. PARIS AGREEMENT DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``Paris Agreement'' means the decision by the 
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's 21st Conference 
of Parties in Paris, France, adopted December 12, 2015.
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