Climate Solutions Don’t Have a Party: Republican Leaders Proved That Today

WASHINGTON—Today, top White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, will meet with leaders from previous Republican administrations to discuss putting a nationwide price on carbon pollution. The proposal comes from the Climate Leadership Council, a group that includes former Secretaries of State James Baker and George Shultz and former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. In response to this breakthrough proposal, the National Audubon Society released the following statement:

"Climate solutions don’t have a party. We saw that today when Republican leaders proposed a robust market-based plan for reducing greenhouse gas pollution,” said David Yarnold (@david_yarnold), Audubon's president and CEO.

“It's a serious and thoughtful idea that Republicans have talked about for years, and we applaud the courage and conviction the Climate Leadership Council showed today. It could be a game-changer.”

In 2014, former Secretary Paulson wrote about the risks posed by climate change for Audubon after the launch of the Birds and Climate Change Report. The study shows that more than half of the bird species in North America, including the Bald Eagle, could lose at least half of their current ranges by 2080 due to rising temperatures. Given the urgent threat climate change poses, Audubon supports common sense, bipartisan solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the speed and scale that birds and people need.

To learn more about Audubon’s Climate Initiative, including how members and supporters can take steps to help birds in a changing climate, please visit www.audubon.org/climate.

The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon’s state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon’s vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization. Learn more at www.audubon.org and @audubonsociety.

###

Contact: Nicolas Gonzalez, ngonzalez@audubon.org, (212) 979-3068.