Secretary of State Rex Tillerson endeared himself to Democratic lawmakers worried about climate change, by signing an international declaration saying that the Arctic region is at risk.
“I’m surprised and cautiously pleased by the secretary’s move,” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., a co-chair of the Climate Solutions Caucus, said Friday. “The Fairbanks Declaration is a clear acknowledgment that the Arctic is quickly warming and a resounding pledge by the Arctic countries to address the impacts of climate change on our world, including reducing methane and carbon emissions.”
Tillerson signed the declaration Thursday during an international meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska, in which the United States and other Arctic countries noted that “the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of the global average.” The document also touted the Paris climate change agreement that then-President Barack Obama’s team negotiated in his second term, despite President Trump’s criticism of the deal.
“In the United States, we are currently reviewing several important policies, including how the Trump administration will approach the issue of climate change,” Tillerson said during his remarks at the council. “We’re not going to rush to make a decision. We’re going to work to make the right decision for the United States.”
But the declaration itself was less ambiguous. “[T]he Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of the global average,” the declaration said. “[We] note with concern that the pace and scale of continuing Arctic warming will depend on future emissions of greenhouse gases and short-lived climate pollutants, reiterate the importance of global action to reduce both greenhouse gases and short-lived climate pollutants to mitigate climate change.”
Those statements are an unlikely surprise from Tillerson for climate caucus lawmakers. “It is significant the former-Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest oil company recognizes the threat climate change poses,” Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, the Republican co-chair of the caucus, said in a statement alongside Deutch. “Given the trillions of dollars in cleaner energy investments and countless good-paying American jobs that would result from remaining in the Paris Agreement, I again urge President Trump to make sure our country keeps its commitment to lead.”
