RESTORATION OF THE TRANSATLANTIC DIALOGUE: THE GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND CYBER OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION April 20, 2021 Serial No. 117–38 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, or http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 44–547PDF WASHINGTON : 2021 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York, Chairman BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas, Ranking ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey Member GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida STEVE CHABOT, Ohio KAREN BASS, California SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts DARRELL ISSA, California DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois AMI BERA, California LEE ZELDIN, New York JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas ANN WAGNER, Missouri DINA TITUS, Nevada BRIAN MAST, Florida TED LIEU, California BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania KEN BUCK, Colorado DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota MARK GREEN, Tennessee COLIN ALLRED, Texas ANDY BARR, Kentucky ANDY LEVIN, Michigan GREG STEUBE, Florida ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania AUGUST PFLUGER, Texas TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey PETER MEIJER, Michigan ANDY KIM, New Jersey NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York SARA JACOBS, California RONNY JACKSON, Texas KATHY MANNING, North Carolina YOUNG KIM, California JIM COSTA, California MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida JUAN VARGAS, California JOE WILSON, South Carolina VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas RON WRIGHT, Texas BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois JASON STEINBAUM, Staff Director BRENDAN SHIELDS, Republican Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT AND CYBER WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts, Chairman SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania, ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia Ranking Member ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey ANN WAGNER, Missouri THEODORE DEUTCH, Florida ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois, DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island BRIAN MAST, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota AUGUST PFLUGER, Texas JIM COSTA, California NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas PETER MEIJER, Michigan BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois LEAH NODVIN, Staff Director (II) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Espinosa, The Honorable Patricia, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ...................................................... 9 Timmermans, The Honorable Frans, Executive Vice-President for the Euro- pean Green Deal, European Commission ........................................................... 15 Kyte, Ms. Rachel, CMG Dean, The Fletcher School, Tufts University ............... 28 Loris, Mr. Nicolas, Deputy Director, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Envi- ronmental Policy, The Heritage Foundation ...................................................... 38 APPENDIX Hearing Notice ......................................................................................................... 71 Hearing Minutes ...................................................................................................... 72 Hearing Attendance ................................................................................................. 73 RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Responses to questions submitted for the record .................................................. 74 (III) RESTORATION OF THE TRANSATLANTIC DIA- LOGUE: THE GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST CLI- MATE CHANGE Tuesday, April 20, 2021 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, ENERGY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND CYBER, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:03 p.m., via Webex, Hon. William R. Keating (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. KEATING. The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any point, and all members will have 5 days to submit statements, extraneous materials, and questions for the record subject to the length and limitation in the rules. To insert something into the record, please have your staff email the pre- viously mentioned address or contact full committee staff. Please keep your video function on at all times, even when you are not recognized by the chair. Members are responsible for muting and unmuting themselves, and please remember to mute yourself after you are finished speaking. Consistent with House Res. 965 and the accompanying regulation, staff will only mute members and witnesses as appropriate when they are not under recognition to eliminate background noise. We anticipate that there will be roll calls during this hearing. We intend to continue the hearing and ask members to come back after voting as quickly as possible, and we will reenter you into the queue where it is appropriate for you when that is done. I see that we do have a quorum present, and I will now recognize myself for an opening statement. Pursuant to notice, we are holding a hearing today entitled, ‘‘Res- toration of the Transatlantic Dialogue: The Global Fight Against Climate Change.’’ I will now recognize myself for opening remarks. The results of climate change are varied, intertwined, and compounding, but together these consequences pose an existential threat to our very human community. As a result of climate change, already vulnerable communities have been subjected to in- creasing dangers and natural disasters, including intensifying droughts, heat waves, and as a result, fires. And at the same time, the melting of our polar ice caps have contributed to sea level ris- ing, putting communities living close to the shorelines at increasing (1) 2 risk. Further, deforestation and unsafe city planning, coupled with climate change, contributed to the spread of vector-borne diseases. And at home, Americans were already economically and phys- ically vulnerable and faced especially devastating setbacks and dif- ficulties caused by fire, floods, and air pollution. These trends are just a snapshot in the landscape of consequences caused by climate change. All that being said, I cannot underscore the following three te- nets enough: First, urgency. Climate change is an existential global threat, and its negative impacts will only increase exponentially if we do not act now. Interdependency. Climate change is also a challenge that no one nation can fight alone. We can only succeed if the global commu- nity is united in our efforts to combat its damaging consequences. Third one is domestically. As one of the top contributors of car- bon dioxide emissions in the world and as a Nation that continues to suffer from the grave impacts of climate change that threatens our health, prosperity, and national security, the United States must step up and act now. For these reasons, I am proud that the Biden Administration has made climate change a top priority in both our domestic and inter- national efforts that thoughtfully ensure that their policies always include a climate lens by installing experienced individuals in deci- sionmaking positions. Specifically, I commend the Biden Adminis- tration for choosing Melanie Nakagawa as the Nation’s—as the na- tional security director for climate and Secretary John Kerry as the United States first Presidential envoy for climate. In addition, I am pleased to see the Biden Administration is com- mitted to including investments in clean energy technologies and jobs. [Audio malfunction.] The CLERK. To subcommittee staff, did we lose Congressman Keating? VOICE. I am going to go into the other room. I think he might have—we might have lost him. I am so sorry, the bandwidth is being very—— Mr. SIRES. Yes, I cannot hear him. VOICE. Okay. Hold on. Mr. FITZPATRICK. Leah, I am prepared to go if you need me to fill in, otherwise we will wait for him. The CLERK. Yes, you can go ahead, Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mr. FITZPATRICK. Wait, I think we got him back here. Mr. KEATING. Am I back? Mr. FITZPATRICK. You are back, sir. Mr. KEATING. Can you hear me? Mr. FITZPATRICK. Yep, we can hear you. Mr. KEATING. Where did you lose me, if you were paying atten- tion? Mr. FITZPATRICK. Just about 20 seconds ago. Mr. KEATING. All right. Mr. LORIS. Clean jobs. Mr. KEATING. Look, I will just go where I think. I was praising the Biden Administration and their work in se- lecting people like Melanie Nakagawa and Secretary Kerry to these 3 important positions they have been assigned to. And I am pleased that the administration is committed to include investments in clean energy, technology, jobs, in their efforts to revitalize Amer- ica’s infrastructure. These decisions, coupled with the immediate announcement to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, have signaled a serious dedica- tion to climate action. However, U.S. engagement in climate will only succeed if we craft these efforts in concert with our trans- atlantic allies. That is why I am proud to hold the hearing with testimony from high-level witnesses, including executive vice presi- dent for the European Green Deal, Mr. Frans Timmermans. Cooperation on climate change, particularly through the trans- atlantic partnership, is essential to achieving meaningful and long- lasting results. The Transatlantic