Our Last Chance to Not be Too Late

I returned to New Jersey last week after spending two days with nine Senate colleagues at the Paris Climate Conference. The Conference itself highlighted the global threats posed by climate change, and made clear to all in attendance that the stakes have never been higher.

Its culmination this weekend — a final accord of 195 nations, the result of years of international negotiation — has resulted in the first ever near-universal commitment to begin to turn the tide on climate change.

The time to act has never been more urgent: there is a broad scientific consensus that our current trajectory could cause the Earth to warm up to 6 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that a continuation of current emissions trends could mean over a 3 foot rise in global sea levels by the end of the 21st century. Continued inaction could result in devastating consequences of untold magnitude, from rising sea levels that flood entire cities to massive migration crises.

While we have yet to encounter the full effects of climate change, we are already paying the price for our lack of urgency and resolve: At home in New Jersey, the symptoms of climate change have already wreaked havoc on the lives of too many families and communities across the state.

Extreme flooding and severe weather have inflicted a grave human toll and imposed great economic costs on New Jersey, with towns and cities still recovering from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

The effects of climate change are not confined by zip codes, borders or even continents. Across the world, every single country is facing the threat of climate change.

During the Conference last week, I had the opportunity to lead a bilateral discussion with leaders from Bangladesh to discuss the climate challenges before us.

Bangladesh, a country of 160 million people in a land mass roughly the size of Iowa, is the nation set to suffer most from the impacts of climate change before 2025. By some estimates, rising sea levels will inundate 17% of Bangladesh’s land area and displace 18 million people by 2050.

These 18 million Bangladeshi people will make up just a part of the global climate migration crisis that is set to unfold over the next century, with multiple estimates putting the number of people displaced because of climate change at 200 million by 2050.

The conversation in our meeting with Bangladesh was underpinned by a sense of urgency.

We were both aware that the commitments and cooperation that come from the final agreement will be critical to both our nations’ futures. It is vital that the agreement from the 195 nations gathered at the conference serves as a first step in addressing the global challenge of reducing emissions and tackling climate change.

No one country can alone address the crisis before us. We all need each other, and the United States must approach supporting this final agreement with one voice calling for cooperation and commitment to action.

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King:

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late… Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’”

The strong, binding agreement reached at the Paris Climate Conference is an important first step. But our work in the coming days, months and years, and our commitment to ensuring this accord’s universal implementation may very well be our last chance at not being too late.