A panel of House lawmakers is expected to slam the climate deal reached in Paris in December during a hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning.
The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing titled “Paris Climate Promise: A Bad Deal for America” at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The hearing will focus on President Obama’s commitments to the 21st Conference of the Parties in the agreement signed in mid-December.
The Paris Agreement was approved by 196 countries in the French capital. It seeks to hold global temperature rise “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, with an eye toward keeping it below 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s an ambitious goal, one that scientists wonder is even possible to achieve: The globe has already warmed 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, above pre-industrial levels. The commitments from countries at the conference would limit global temperature rise to 2.7 degrees Celsius, or nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
The pact allows each country to voluntarily set emissions reductions targets that will be reviewed every five years starting in 2023. The United States has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions between 26-28 percent over 2005 levels by 2030.
The cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and the financial contribution pledges made to poorer countries are not legally binding, so Congress will not vote on the most important parts of the agreement.
Among the witnesses expected to testify at the hearing are Steve Eule, vice president for climate and technology at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama-Hunstville; Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute; and Steven Groves, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
