Congressman Neguse Returns From High-Level Congressional Delegation Led By Speaker Pelosi to UN Climate Conference in Madrid, Spain
Washington, D.C.—Today, Congressman Joe Neguse, who serves on the House Leadership team as well as the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, returned from a high level bicameral Congressional Delegation to Madrid, Spain where he represented Colorado at international discussions about the climate crisis. The delegation met with international leaders, including President Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón of Spain, European Union President David Sassoli, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres while at the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP25. The delegation also met with international, U.S. and faith-based NGO’s to discuss shared priorities in fighting the climate crisis and attended an audience with King Felipe VI at Zarzuela Palace. Congressman Neguse was the only Coloradan to attend the international conference.
View photos of the trip here.
“In Colorado, we are leading on climate action from the groundbreaking climate science research underway at our federal labs to ambitious renewable energy goals being set in cities and counties across the state,” said Congressman Joe Neguse. “I was honored to bring the voice of Coloradans and constituents across the 2nd district to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and participate in critically important international discussions with leaders from across our globe about needed actions to fight climate change.”
“It’s a privilege to lead this very distinguished Congressional Delegation, from the House and the Senate,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “By coming here, we want to say to everyone: We’re still in. The United States is still in. Our delegation is here to send a message that Congress’s commitment to taking action on the climate crisis is ironclad.”
In Colorado, fourteen cities and counties, including seven cities and counties in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District have set ambitious renewable energy goals. Even while the Trump Administration has decided unilaterally to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, communities and states across the U.S. are stepping up to set their own emission reduction goals.
Congressman Neguse has made fighting the climate crisis central to his legislative agenda since taking office in January. He earned placement on both the House Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis early in the year, and has introduced several pieces of legislation aimed at investing in renewable energy and regenerative agriculture to combat climate change, including legislation to preserve 400,000 acres of Colorado public lands—the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act—which passed out of the U.S. House in October. He also secured Colorado as the first and only state to hold an official field hearing of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which was held in July 2019 at the University of Colorado at Boulder.