WASHINGTON (Nexstar) — The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a stark new report that found there is no doubt humans are driving climate change.
The UN Secretary General called the report a “Code Red for humanity.”
The IPCC said the planet is at a tipping point for avoiding devastating and irreversible consequences of climate change. The report warns wildfires, storms, droughts and heat waves will continue to get worse.
“The world that we will leaving our children and grandchildren will be increasingly unhealhty and uninhabitable,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said.
The new report said undoing damage from climate change could take centuries or millenia, and some could be irreversible.
“Without immediate and bold action we are staring down ever worsening floods and heat waves, droughts and sea level rise,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said.
Schumer and California Sen. Alex Padilla said their $3.5 trillion reconciliation package will do more to combat climate change than any piece of legislation in Senate history.
“Look at California,” Padilla said. “Yet another year of record-breaking wildfires. Given the drought, given the heat, this is what happens.”
Republicans oppose the overall package, including the measure to fight climate change.
Sen. Mitch McConnell called the measure, “Green New Deal regulations when American gas prices have already shot up.”
Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said most countries in the Paris Climate Accord aren’t meeting its goals.
“America is the only one that’s actually met and exceeded its original goal,” Hagerty said — even though the US withdrew from the agreement under President Trump.
“That’s the way we do things in America,” he said. “Step back government and allow the private sector to do what we do best, which is innovate.”
Democtats say the US has only been able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because of federal tax incentives and programs. Democrats would need every Democrat in the Senate to support the reconciliation package for it to pass.
The Senate plans to vote on it in the coming days.