Political Quotes

“I want to thank my friend from Minnesota, Senator Franken, for his comments concerning an important day tomorrow. It is important for many reasons. We have worked a long time to get the global community engaged on climate change. As Senator Franken pointed out, tomorrow is Earth Day. It will be the 46th anniversary of Earth Day, which was started by our former colleague Senator Gaylord Nelson. He did that because he recognized it is important for this country to recognize our global responsibilities to our environment and to our future. There is no greater challenge that we face than climate change because climate change has been caused, in part, by our own activities here on Earth, by the emission of greenhouse gases. We have a responsibility to reverse the current trends. We can do that. Tomorrow in New York City, many leaders will come to sign the COP21 agreement that was negotiated in Paris earlier this year by 16 nations representing 98 percent of the global greenhouse emissions. This is a historic moment. I want to reflect for a moment about the U.S. leadership that has brought us to this moment in which we now have an agreement among so many countries of the world. We have been trying to do this now for a long time. We have not been successful. At last, the global community has come together with meaningful commitments that will put us on the right path, and the U.S. leadership made this possible.…”