Sec. 207. Sense of Congress on United States reengagement with the Group of Seven and the Group of Twenty on climate action
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Congress finds the following: President Trump has abstained from several heads of state meetings on climate action and cooperation with the heads of state from countries comprising the Group of Seven (referred to in this section as the G7 ) and the Group of Twenty (referred to in this section as the G20 ). The G7 summit held in Charlevoix, Quebec in June 2018 produced a climate action communique that was signed by the heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, but was not signed by the United States.
The G7 climate action communique states, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union reaffirm their strong commitment to implement the Paris Agreement, through ambitious climate action, in particular through reducing emissions while stimulating innovation, enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening and financing resilience and reducing vulnerability; as well as ensuring a just transition, including increasing efforts to mobilize climate finance from a wide variety of sources. .
In 2019, the United States blocked the G7 from making any new or additional commitments on climate change, to the expressed disappointment and frustration of the other six heads of state. The G7, without the active participation of the United States, continues to work together to fulfill clean energy commitments on initiatives such as the 2014 Rome Initiative for Energy Security, the 2015 Hamburg Initiative for Sustainable Energy Security, the 2016 Kitakyushu Initiative on Energy Security for Global Growth, and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative.
However, United States objections to global cooperative climate action have prevented the G7 from undertaking new clean energy and climate action initiatives in recent years. The 2018 Buenos Aires Leaders Declaration by the G20— recognizes the risks that climate change poses to global security, global health, and economic development; and affirms the significance of the Paris Agreement. The United States insisted on the inclusion of a statement in the G20 Buenos Aires Leaders Declaration, for which the United States was the only subscriber, expressing dissenting opinions on international climate action cooperation and equivocation on utilizing all energy sources and technologies, while protecting the environment .
In 2019, the G20 narrowly avoided concluding without a leaders’ declaration, when the President unsuccessfully tried to pressure the other 19 heads of state to weaken commitments on combating climate change in the 2019 G20 Osaka Leaders Declaration, leaving the United States to provide a dissenting provision articulating its outlier position on climate action in the Declaration. Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President, acting through the Secretary of State, shall initiate a China-focused agenda at the G7, with respect to— trade and investment issues and enforcement; establishing and promulgating international infrastructure standards; the erosion of democracy in Hong Kong; human rights concerns in Xinjiang, Tibet, and other areas in the People’s Republic of China; the security of 5G telecommunications; anti-competitive behavior; coercive and indentured international finance and conditional provision of foreign assistance; international influence campaigns; climate change;
China’s domestic and international investments in new coal power plants; environmental standards; and coordination with like-minded regional partners, including the Republic of Korea and Australia. Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall provide a briefing to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives regarding the progress of any negotiations described in subsection (b).
It is the sense of Congress that the United States should— in the next G7 communique and G20 Leaders’ Declaration— renounce the United States contrarian positions on climate change expressed in the 2018 and 2019 official documents of the G7 and G20 summits; renew its commitment to climate cooperation and support for fulfilling the goals of the Paris Agreement in the context of the G7 and the G20; lead efforts to formalize new mechanisms and commitments to climate action cooperation between the heads of state of the G7 and of the G20, which are aimed at— increasing ambition on greenhouse gas mitigation; and strengthening support for climate finance in developing countries, particularly countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change; and challenge the heads of state of the G7 and the G20 to leverage private financing and increase grants and official development assistance in clean energy and sustainable development projects in their own countries and in developing countries, especially countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change; and initiate the China-focused agenda described in subsection
(b)at the G7.