Mr. REED: Mr. President, today I join many of my colleagues here in encouraging the Senate to continue working on solutions to protect our planet from the growing threats of climate change.

First, I would like to thank Senator Sheldon Whitehouse for his leadership and tireless work on these issues. We both represent the great State of Rhode Island, the Ocean State, and I am lucky to have such a strong partner to work with to improve the health of our oceans and fight sea level rise, beach erosion, and ocean warming and acidification. I am proud to work alongside him as we respond to the serious challenges of climate change. Indeed, he is the leader in this effort in the Senate, throughout my State, and throughout the country.

I applaud his commitment to this endeavor and his efforts to organize all of us to come here and to speak out on this growing danger.

We are already shouldering the costs of climate change as Americans, and these costs are increasing. Climate change is driving severe drought and wildfires in the West, larger and more frequent floods in the Midwest, and sea level rise and greater storm damage along our coasts. Vulnerable populations, like children with asthma and the elderly, are suffering from higher levels of smog in our cities and longer and more severe heat waves. Farmers and ranchers are struggling with crop and livestock losses from drought. Increasingly, acidic oceans are harming shellfish populations and threatening fisheries. Communities are struggling to pay for infrastructure damaged by fires, more extreme storms, and coastal erosion.

In the face of this evidence, as my colleagues have all pointed out, there is a systematic and organized effort to discredit, dismiss it, ignore it, but Americans are sensing dramatically the effects in their own lives, and they understand this.

One area I think is important to emphasize is that climate change is not just a local issue or an issue that is associated with domestic policy. It has profound national security ramifications. Indeed, to the military, climate change acts as a threat multiplier, exacerbating threats in already unstable regions of the world. Climate change creates chokepoints for oil distribution lines and exacerbates our dependence on foreign oil to fuel ships, tanks, aircraft, and tactical vehicles.

To protect our national security, we must take action based on scientific evidence presented by our Nation's best climate scientists. Such experts have overwhelmingly warned us that the increasingly warmer temperatures will mean oppressive heat in already hot areas. This translates not only to geopolitical issues, but it translates down to the individual soldier. For our infantry personnel, this means carrying several pounds of additional gear across dry and arid regions. And supplying these troops with fuel and water is becoming a difficult challenge for our military leaders. Warmer temperatures also lead to glacial melt, causing sea level rise and ocean acidification, affecting our seafaring vessels and aircraft carriers, and increasing the complexity for our Navy.

One of the more interesting moments I had on the Committee on Armed Services was to listen several years ago to an admiral describe to me that transit to the Arctic Ocean will become commonplace in just a few years. To someone who was brought up in the 1950s and 1960s and served in the military in the 1970s, that seemed completely implausible, but that is happening. Yet there are groups that are organized that are trying to make that disappear.

It is not disappearing for our military. They have to cope with it, plan for it, and, indeed, ensure that our security is protected from the ramifications.

In national security, decisions are made by a careful evaluation of risk. Given the preponderance of scientific evidence, it only makes sense that we address the major risks caused by climate change. National security and foreign policy leaders across the political spectrum issued a statement last year urging the highest levels of American government and business to take domestic and international action to fight climate change. These are the national security experts. They are a bipartisan group of Americans who have dedicated their lives to this Nation. They are not a self-interested group of people who are profiting from a certain position. They include former Secretaries of Defense, Chuck Hagel, William Cohen, and Leon Panetta; Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and George Shultz; National Security Advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert “Bud”' McFarlane; Senators Olympia Snowe, Carl Levin, and Richard Lugar; New Jersey Governor and Chair of the 9/11 Commission Thomas Kean; and retired U.S. Army Chief of Staff, GEN Gordon R. Sullivan. These and many others agree that climate change is a threat to national security and have called for U.S. leadership in the global effort to tackle the urgent and complex problem of climate change. And yet, even these wise and selfless Americans are being dismissed, if you will, by the organized effort to undercut scientific evidence.

We took steps and have taken steps. Last December, in Paris, we took a step forward with an international agreement. More than 150 countries pledged to develop plans to tackle climate change domestically, including countries once reluctant to act, such as China and India. American leadership has been the key to getting these countries on board and agreeing to do their fair share. These countries are also acting because it is in their self-interest to do so--for their own health and for their national security.

It is clear that no country can avoid the impacts of climate change, and no country can meet this challenge alone. As a nation that has contributed more than a quarter of all global carbon pollution, it is our responsibility to lead, not to deny. As a nation already feeling the effects and costs of climate change, it is also in our national interest to do so. As we have seen time and again, other countries would join us if America leads the way--not by denial but by dedication to pragmatic solutions that can be achieved.

American companies must also do a better job in addressing climate change. It is not enough just for America's government and military to take action; the private sector also needs to step up to the plate. Companies need to be transparent and provide fuller disclosure of the impacts their industries have on our climate and environment and must take full responsibility for their actions. Some companies have improved their sustainability practices and have made strides to inform consumers about their carbon footprint, and more need to join them. In fact, many companies concluded it is in their economic self-interest to do so, not just in the national or public interest to do so.

Information about the risks posed by climate change is also something that is critical to investors, some of whom are demanding greater disclosures. For example, Allianz Global Investors, which is a global diversified active investment management with nearly $500 billion in assets under manager has specifically called for ``achieving better disclosure of the effects of carbon costs on the Oil & Gas companies.'' This is why I have introduced legislation to enhance climate-related disclosures by publicly-traded companies to ensure that these companies are providing investors with the information necessary to make informed investment decisions.

These companies not only have an obligation, as we all do, to the greater welfare of the country and indeed the world, but they owe a very direct and fiduciary responsibility to their investors. Many of these companies have information--I would suspect at least--that should be disclosed, and we have to ensure that they do this so that the market operates appropriately.

It is not just about broad statements of protecting the climate. It is not just about feeling good. It is about making concrete information available to the public, to investors, to the country as a whole--not to deny, obfuscate, or ignore this information.

I urge my colleagues to support legislation that protects our air, water, natural resources, and environment. The health of our oceans and environment must be preserved for now and for future generations. Indeed, in this effort, I can think of no one who is taking a more forceful and constructive role than my colleague Senator Whitehouse. Again, I salute him.

With that, I yield the floor.