SEEC Praises the Unveiling of Biden’s National Climate Assessment

The leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko, Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer, Matt Cartwright, Sean Casten, Chellie Pingree, and Katie Porter, and Chair Emeritus Rep. Gerry Connolly, released the following statement after the publication of the Biden Administration's Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA), a new report that presents a sharper picture of how a changing climate will impact every aspect of our nation's economy, communities, and ecosystems.

"Today, the Biden Administration released the comprehensive Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA) that paints a sharper picture of how the climate crisis is unfolding in America and the important climate action steps being taken. Coming two years since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and one year since the Inflation Reduction Act, this report already shows how those two laws are reshaping the American economy and having a meaningful impact on the trajectory of the climate crisis.

"Americans deserve to know how climate threats are multiplying and the ways in which this crisis will impact every aspect of the lives of our families and future generations. This report shows that in 2023 alone, we set a record number of climate disasters that cost over $1 billion. These events are now happening every three weeks on average, as compared to once every four months back in the 1980s, when adjusted for inflation. Yet it also shows, thanks to our clean energy investments, annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 12% between 2005 and 2019, with a corresponding drop in wind and solar energy costs by 70% and 90% respectively over the last decade.

"In a first, this report also delivers an accessible web-based tool that consolidates state-of-the-art climate science and allows Americans across the country to explore updated climate projections that can inform local resilience, adaptation, and mitigation efforts in their own state or county. It also for the first time examines how certain communities are impacted disproportionately by climate change and how our economy will react if we do not take sufficient climate action.

"This new assessment serves as a rallying cry across America of both how far we've come but also how much further we still have to go. Equipped with this knowledge, we can still stop the worst effects of the climate crisis if we all come together and demand the action necessary."