Skip to primary navigation Skip to content
October 09, 2018

Ranking Member Johnson’s Statement on IPCC Global Warming Special Report

(Washington, DC) – Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a Special Report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius. This report was prepared pursuant to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change adopted in 2015.

Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson’s (D-TX) statement is below.

“The IPCC Special Report restates much of what we have known for years – climate change has already occurred and we are seeing the consequences through extreme weather such as devastating droughts and more severe storms, vanishing Arctic sea ice, and rising sea levels. The report makes crystal clear that we must act now, today, in extraordinary ways to confront climate change. It also tells us that it will  cost to combat climate change, but we can either pay those costs now or pay them later as a result of the devastation that will occur to ‘health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth’ if we allow it to continue to warm to even the Paris Agreement target of two degrees Celsius.

“This report was prepared using ‘6,000 scientific publications, drew contributions from 132 authors, and had more than 1,000 scientists review the findings.’ And it concludes that climate change is real and we can do something about it. We must heed this dire warning and act by sharply cutting carbon emissions and investing in research. We must act for the future of humanity.”