Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Hill, and I very much appreciate her leadership. Over the next several days, the eyes of the world will turn to the climate crisis with the Youth Global Strike for Climate set to take place in over 150 countries just before the United Nations holds a Climate Action Summit in New York City. While millions of people across the globe call for action on climate change and world leaders come together to show how they will honor their commitment to the Paris Agreement, it is safe to say that the White House won't step up to lead, let alone take any meaningful action. Instead, the Trump administration is pulling us out of the Paris Agreement, which nearly 200 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and all in between have signed. Where President Obama created a leading role for the United States on the world stage, the Trump administration has retreated. The U.N. Secretary General has called on all leaders to come to the Climate Action Summit with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent over the next decade and to net zero emissions by 2050. The United States has an important opportunity to show leadership and to push other countries to follow us, and that is how we should evaluate all of these measures, on the basis of followership. That requires that we lead. That is critically important, the work that we do.…”