On the recordNovember 19, 2021
I would like to reflect on my trip to Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. I was fortunate to have 18 Senate colleagues join me to bolster President Biden's agenda and the United States' leadership role on the world stage. Six years ago, I had the privilege of leading a congressional delegation to COP21, which produced the Paris Agreement in 2015. Countries from all across the globe collectively agreed that the threats and effects of climate change were too damaging to ignore. Unfortunately, the previous administration's fraught decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement jeopardized our credibility. The global effort suffered another setback last year, when the UN Climate Change Conference was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it was not safe to gather. These major setbacks were costly, but this time, we went to Glasgow resolved to make up for lost time. One of President Biden's first actions when he took the oath of office was to rejoin the Paris Agreement. Since then, President Biden has brought the United States back to the negotiating table and made unprecedented commitments and investments to tackle the climate crisis. The overarching goal of this year's UN climate conference was to rally countries toward action that would reduce emissions enough to keep the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach. Without a doubt, Glasgow raised ambition.…





