More than 30 years ago, the U.S. became the first industrialized country to ratify the world’s first climate treaty. Since then, Congress has done little to honor that commitment.

Now, climate change is not just an environmental issue — it has become a quality-of-life issue affecting every American city and family.

Climate impacts are most obvious as communities turn to ash, houses float away on swollen rivers, tornadoes reduce neighborhoods to rubble, and the air gets so hot that we risk our lives by going outside. More than 4 million Americans were displaced from their homes by weather disasters last year. Four in 10 people live in counties hit by one or more weather disasters during the last two months. More than one in four homes, worth nearly $13 trillion, are at serious or extreme risk of weather disasters.

However, global warming is also driving up inflation, healthcare costs, food prices and insurance rates.

Polls show that 70 percent of Americans now believe climate change is a serious problem, 64 percent support the development of clean energy, and 52 percent consider global warming a top priority for the president and Congress. Yet, the president still insists that climate change is a hoax.

Worse, he is methodically destroying the government’s ability to understand, anticipate and help mitigate climate change. Trump wants to eliminate FEMA and the government’s financial safety net for states and communities that have exhausted their disaster funds.

There was a glimmer of hope in 2022 when Congress worked with President Biden to pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It included the nation’s largest-ever investment in clean energy. Over the next two years, financing for carbon-free energy increased by 71 percent. Each federal dollar attracted six private dollars, leading to a

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