Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today joined more than 120 of her House colleagues in condemning the Trump administration’s formal withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. The resolution was introduced during the ongoing 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) in light of the Administration’s beginning of a formal withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit the increase in global temperatures to less than 2° C.

“In Maine, climate change isn’t an abstraction. It is a very real threat to our economy and to our way of life, and if we don’t act quickly, our state will suffer,” said Pingree. “The Trump administration’s retreat from a global commitment to reduce emissions is dangerous and reckless. I’m glad to stand with my colleagues in the House in reaffirming America’s commitment to reduce emissions and I’m proud to join countless leaders around the world in confronting the perils of the climate crisis.”

The International Paris Agreement on Climate Change, signed in December 2015 at COP21 by President Obama, set out to strengthen the global response to climate change and required all signing parties to regularly report their emissions levels and efforts to curtail greenhouse gases in their respective countries. President Trump announced his intention to pull out of the agreement in 2017, in spite of the fact that more than 1,000 businesses and nearly 200 nations are still in support of the commitment.

Pingree has previously condemned the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the agreement. She was an original cosponsor of H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act, which would prohibit the use of federal funds to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and pressures the Executive branch to develop a plan for meeting our national commitment to greenhouse gas reductions. Pingree took to the floor of the House of Representatives on May 1, 2019 to deliver a speech in favor of its passage.

Pingree has championed a bold agenda to combat the climate crisis, including legislation to commit the United States to a 100% clean economy by 2050. She is an original cosponsor of the visionary Green New Deal.  

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