cool august day, what a fantastic turnout on capitol hill on an august day. and that's really due to the extraordinary lineup of people presenting and talking to you today, i'm sure, that brings you here. five years ago, maybe even before, the united nations -- with the cooperation, certainly, of the united states and with many countries around the world -- began to plan for the future of world global development that would apply not only to the least developed countries, but just as well equally and universally to the critical state of affairs for human rights and for development in the best equipped countries including the united states. and out of that conversation came this extraordinary set of sustainable development goals to help lead the way for all countries voluntarily. importantly, voluntarily to collaborate on how we will achieve the outcomes of those goals as set forth for the years 2015-2030. so we're just two years into this, and already there's significant progress to be talking about, and it builds on the progress of the millenium development goals that were really quite extraordinarily successful by focusing, focusing across the world the attention of development agencies. but now focusing the attention of leaders in almost all countries. 196 nations signed this opportunity for voluntary cooperation to carries forward -- to carries forward. and probably all of you are familiar with that, so i won't go further. i'd like paula to tell you more about the association. we are extraordinarily honored this afternoon, they'll be introduced individually, for congressman beyer who's been a great supporter and speaking well of united nations and serving as one of our leading ambassadors as well as now in the house of representatives. so we're grateful that he's here on an august afternoon. and i'm particularly delighted that our moderator this afternoon is a colleague of mine for many, many years. we're not in the same organization now, dr. george ingram who's an outstanding leader and really one of the great experts on the process and engagement of the u.s. congress on foreign affairs through his work with also on international development modernization, and he's now at the brooking institute. they will be further introduced in time. let me now introduce paula bowland who is the working executive director. i'm voluntary, and carries out the extraordinary work of our association. thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> good afternoon. good afternoon, everyone. delighted to see a full house. congressman beyer, thank you so much not only for hosting us this afternoon, but for being a champion. now more than ever we need champions in the u.s. congress because the mission of the whole u.n. association of the usa is to educate and mobilize americans for a strong u.s./u.n. partnership. that partnership is more critical than ever before. with all the budget cuts that foreign affairs and other fields are facing, more than ever our efforts to educate and mobilize our communities to support, support the work of the united nations and its many specializedded agencies -- specialized agencies. today you're going to learn more about the global goals and particularly on climate change and why we need you to be an active voice in your community. and this is your community. so if you have not yet joined, the united joins has a national capital area, i hope you will consider doing it because there's so much that you can get out of that network. you can join committees. we focus on many different issues such as peace and security, sustainable development, human rights, international law, a very active group of young professionals, a year-round model u.n. program that we do with high school students. we partner with several organizations, and it's wonderful for networking, for really bringing these goals to the local level. that's what we've been doing at una over the last few years through community consultation and through programs like the ones the p sustainable development committee has been putting together. this event is being sponsored by our una sustainable development committee which is led by patrick, who's here, and has been organized and led by a very active committee member, thomas lu, who it's been a pleasure to work with, and i thank him very much for his tireless work and commitment. i want to take a few seconds to thank c-span who is with us this afternoon as well as nexus media life. youth collaboration and foreign affairs, the young professionals in foreign policy and also to our donors, w. putt intellectual poverty attorneys, steve mosley, our president, and colleen smith. thank you so very much especially, again, to congressman beyer for his support. it's also through his office that we celebrate every december human rights day. so we look forward to your active engagement in una so we can make a difference. we are the lance armstrong arest network of americans -- the largest network of americans in support of the united nations in the unite 180 chapters, so get involved. thank you so much. without further ado, let me now call on thomas. who really deserves a round of applause for his tireless work. [applause] >> thank you, paula, for such a warm introduction. good afternoon, everyone. on behalf of the sustainable development committee and the rest of the una/nca chapter, i'd like to personally welcome all of you to the united states capitol to discuss such an important issue, the sustainable development goals with congressman don beyer and mr. george ingram from the brookings institution. my name is thomas liu, and i'm a proud member of the una/nca sustainable development committee and above all, the event lead for today's program. before i start, i'd like to thank my parents for encouraging and guiding me to become the person who i am today and to all the dads out here today, happy -- [inaudible] father's day. i'd also like to thank an individual for whom if i did not know, i wouldn't have the courage to organize this event. and that individual is no one other than mr. edward elmendorf. mr. elmendorf was the former president of una/nca and una/usa. i'd like to thank him for his support. unfortunately, he can't be here today. i met him at the 2016una/usa summit where he held a round table discussion. mr. elmendorf went on to secure my position as a committee member of una/nca, because sups it's rare for high school students to join such a prestigious organization. he also recommended me to join the sustainable development company which is actively leading and facilitating the development of programs on behalf of our committee. by following mr. elmendorf's insight, i had the opportunity to learn more and be here today to advocate on their behalf. as a quick reminder, as paula said, we're currently live on national television thanks to c-span and their team's effort for broadcasting today's event. we are also streaming through nexus media life to help encourage and engage our online support -- audiences. please be sure to follow@una/nca throughout the afternoon on twitter. after, the panel will be taking questions from our audience. today's hashtags are hashtag congress and fdgs. on this afternoon we're gathered here to talk about go 13 of the united nations -- [inaudible] which is climate action. according to the u.n., climate change presents the single biggest net to development, and its widespread, unprecedented effects disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable. in april of 2016 member states of the united nations signed the historic paris climate agreement, an agreement that set the stage for such an ambitious climate change agenda. however, things have changed. since president trump decided to withdraw from the paris climate agreement on june 1st, it is imperative for leaders such as congressman don beyer to reaffirm the leadership role that the united states has to play, the united states must play on the international stage and especially on issues such as climate change. congressman beyer isn't only my role model, he's america's strongest member of congress fighting against global climate change. i first met congressman beyer as a volunteer for his campaign three years ago when he encouraged me to stay involved in not only policy, but politics. and i went on to serve as an intern. before being elected to virginia's 8th congressional district in 2014, congressman beyer servedded as two-term incumbent lieutenant governor and most importantly, ambassador to switzerland under president obama. before inviting congressman beyer up to deliver the speech, after speech we'll be followed by a conversation between congressman beyer and mr. george ingram, chairman emeritus of the global leadership foundation. we are pleased to have congressman beyer hered today to be the first member of congress to speak about the u.s.' role and the importance of the united nations sustainable development goals. congressman becer will also provide a congressman's perspective on the need for strong leadership on climate action. with that, it's my great ohioan and privilege to welcome -- honor and privilege to welcome the ranking member of the house committee, a champion of una/nca and my mentor, congressman don beyer. [laughter] [applause] >> that is now my favorite introduction of my whole life, so thank you. [laughter] i forget who said, i guess gnatly won't -- flattery won't kill you as long as you don't inhale it. [laughter] i may not be the greatest champion, but when i was running for office, the simplest promise i made was that i would be the strongest, clearest voice that i could be to the combat climate change. and, you know, sometimes it's not so much important to be the best as to try your hardest to do that. so, thomas, thank you very much. by the way, he goes to langley high school in mcclain, virginia, which used to be the number one high school in virginia for years and years and year, and then they created thomas jefferson magnet school, so now it's the number two high school in virginia. and i'm also so thrill that he is a young person deeply involved in policy and in politics when young people ask me how they can make a difference, the simplest, most honest answer is just vote, please. in my primary in 2014 there were ten of us on the ballot, and the average primary voter was a 62-year-old woman. and i would be at the polls all day and not see anybody under the age of 50. so thank you for being a great role model for your generation, and i think the generation above you too. thanks for inviting me here. there are more people in this room than there are in the rest of the building. [laughter] you've probably seen, it's completely deserted. i feel spoiled, because i am the member of congress that lives closest to the capitol. i actually, alexandria is closer than eleanor holmes norton who lives in the city, is i get delighted to come back when everybody else is in texas, california, things like that. and i'm especially humbled that you asked me to talk about the u.n. and climate change. i feel very, very connected, first, to the u.n. family history, my grandmother, claire la -- clara beyer was actually in geneva in 1945 as for part of the american delegation to organize the u.n. she served as our u.s. representative to the ilo from '45-'57 when they involuntarily kicked her out of the department of labor. she then worked for usaid until they kick her out at age 82. [laughter] for the women in the room, in 1972 just before they kick her out, she authored the percy amendment to the u.s. foreign relations act which as she went around the world visiting 150 countries, she noticed that usaid money was unequally spent almost completely on the men and the boys. so the percy amendment says it has to be spent equally on men and women. it's still part of the law, and it's probably one of the great pieces of our pride. i was born in the free territory of -- [inaudible] which was the united nations protect rate from 1945-1953, and my tad was over there keeping the peace -- my dad was over there keeping the peace. so my united nations protect rate doesn't exist anymore. it's amay -- amazing they let me serve in the u.s. congress. [laughter] the family is from estonia, denmark, germany, belgium, france, england, scotland. my oldest child was adopted from dublin, ireland. lots and lots of international connections. and feeling, you know, very connected to all of the rest of the world. i am a democrat, you know, a left of center democrat. and i'm, in the first term maybe my proudest moment was being one of only 28 democrats to vote for trade promotion authority for president obama. and i was a very strong supporter of tpp, the trans-pacific partnership, and ttip, the trade and investment partnership with europe. mostly -- even going back to bretton woods, which was about the time i was born. becauseyou look at the world -- if you look at the world today, it is so different from the world of 1950 because of our international efforts, because of the liberalization of trade, because of the united nations, because of usaid and the organizations around the world. there a great piece in the sunday papers two days ago which i pulled down, read quickly and will read again slowly just about -- i believe the number was 137,000 people per day lifted out of poverty since the year 2007. i had dinner with a bunch of board members from some corporation last night and talked about what we're doing on capitol hill to address poverty. sdg number one. and the chairman of this corporation sitting next to me said, you know, they just need to go work hard, you know? some, like, fox news perspective on poverty. [laughter] i said what about those 137,000 people a day that we've been lifting out of poverty. was that a matter of 137,000 people a day suddenly decided to work hard? no. it's policies, the investments, the leadership that we provide that makes all that difference. also one last thought. i, as thomas mentioned, i was ambassador to switzerland and liechtenstein. the bilateral ambassador. but there were four other ambassadors in switzerland, all in geneva. the committee on disrmment, world health organization, the committee -- the wto and the human rights commission. finish so when i got there, the first thing i did was read the inspector general's report on my mission in bern which was very up kind to the previous ambassador who was a rich texan. and very unkind to the ambassador, to the permanent rep to the u.n. who was a rich texan in geneva. they had their own jets side by side at the geneva airport. and they said what was the problem was that the two ambassadors hated each other. they were both texas republicans, and they didn't get along and the embassies, therefore, didn't get along. so i had the opportunity to meet betty king who is our u.s. ambassador to the united nations the first week, and we hugged and kissed and decided that we were going to be the opposite for the next four years and best friends. and it made such an enormous difference to have the u.n. and the bilateral embassy working closely together. i only bring that up because betty, because there was a north carolina senator whose name jumps out of my head, people my age here will remember, halted the confirmation of our ambassador to the u.n. in new york for most of the second clinton term. sowetty was number two there and wrote the -- so betty was number two there. so once again, i feel very connected to all this. and then there's climate change. well, when you first get to congress, they ask you what committees you want to be on. so i said ways and means committee and appropriations and energy and commerce and, you know, i got my seventh and eighth choices, which were the science committee and the natural resources committee. and sweeter the uses of adversity? i love the committees i'm on because they are so incredibly relevant to the the topic tonight and and what's really important to me. science-based and technology committee is -- science, space and technology committee is unfortunate, and i know we're on c-span, so i don't want to do ad hominem attacks, but it's widely known as the false science committee. we have a chairman who doesn't believe climate change is real. our hearings tend to be dominated by deniers who prefer to call themselves skeptics now. and so we hear a lot of stuff about it's not real, the measurements are wrong, is world is cooling. hey, look, we were predicting an ice age back in the 1970s. even if we got rid of all the fossil fuels, it wouldn't make any difference anyway, it's too late. it's a difficult committee to work on because of that. i'm also on the natural resources committee which is different, but it once again tends to be dominated by people that don't believe climate change is real. the existential issue on that committee is the use of public lands, and basically the one perspective -- my perspective is that all federal lands should be given back to the states to twenty as much gas and oil and -- to get as much gas and oil and minerals rather than being preserved for the american people for the long run. and yet what i discovered in switzerland and here again, too, is we're virtually the only country in the world where the vast majority of the population doesn't understand that climate change is real and is affecting us each and every day. and we have to fight that in every way that we can. so i live in northern california virginia. i have the four largest defense contractors are all based in my district. so i was visiting northrop grumman recently, and in their lobby is a huge poster that shows the city of -- virginia, and it's a off. and the graph is storm surges in norfolk, virginia, how often the city is submerged. and it goes back from 1930 throughed today. and you see that the surges are higher every year and more frequent. so what starts off as small little graphs, relatively spacious, becomes very high graphs, very dense here. and if you extend it all the way to 2050, norfolk is flooded every single day of the year. at our climate change hearing weed had two or three weeks ago with generals and ambassadors and professors and the admiral who ran the norfolk naval base, she told us it is routine now in norfolk/virginia beach that before you leave work in the morning you can check waves, the newspaper and the radio to see which roads are open and haven't been flooded because of the climate change and the sea surge and all that. the city of norfolk itself has had 14-inch sea level rise in the last 20 years. i believe that's the number. the 14 inches is right. the 20 years may be 25, but it's an awful lot, among the worse here. the worst here. so it obviously knows no borders. the big deal is that i somehow we have to come together as a world. my wife and i went to denmark in december of 2009. this is, we were over in switzerland anyway, thought this is really important, let's go see. it was frightening because you had all these countries there ready to act on climate change, and the big four bric companies led by india and china were saying consistently day after day, you got rich by burning so much fossil fuel, by distributing so much greenhouse gases, and now you want us to cut back, and you're not doing anything. you have no leadership at all. and for ten days, that cop-15 conference went on as the world spun farther and farther away from any kind of constructive action on climate change. on last two or three days, barack obama -- who was a relatively, a ten month president, eleven-month, flew in and saved it by putting together, essentially, a bunch of voluntary goals and sort of snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. but it was very frightening. and the message that came through loud and clear was if the u.s. doesn't lead, no one else duh. no one else will. if we don't lead, why should anyone else take this seriously and move forward? as a quicker side, i'm very proud of what obama did in the eight years of president despite virtually zero action by congress. nothing happened in the house, nothing -- and the senate, the house actually passed a cap and trade bill in the first term that went nowhere in the senate, and then nothing in the second term. despite that, the u.s. had the greatest improvement in diminished greenhouse gas emission between 2008 and 2016 when we left. i'm an automobile dealer, if any of you don't know that and you need a car, you'll see me afterwards. [laughter] we friend from 1982 through 2008 with a café standard of 22 miles per gallon. which meant that every engineering progress made over those 16 years went into bigger, faster, stronger, you know, expeditions and things like that. and then obama came in, and they raised it from 22 to 36, and all the manufacturers complained bitter he for a couple weeks and then quickly adapted to 36 miles per gallon. the land rovers or the volvos went to all four cylinder. and now they have a plan to go to 45 and, ultimately, 54 miles per gallon. an enormous difference. he came in and looked at the frat government's greatest source -- federal government's greatest source of greenhouse gas were federal buildings and made enormous investments in the infrastructure that throws it off. so we were, despite no action by congress, one of the things i promised to be part of trying to fix when i got here, we came a long, long way. in switzerland it was, it's just fascinating to get there. if you lift listen to -- if you listen to people say i don't want to be one of those socialist countries over there where the quality of life is so bad, please laugh because the quality of life of in switzerland is tremendous, you know? [laughter] and their carbon footprint is one-third of what ours is on a per capita basis. they live longer than we do, they're happier, they're thinner, they have really great lives. and they've found a way to do it with one-third the carbon footprint. so we have to have global leadership which is why it was tragic that president trump has talked about pulling us out of paris agreement. not a surprise. this is a guy who tweeted that climate change was a chinese hoax, and it's not real, and we had to end the war on coal, and we're going to bring all these coal jobs back and things that are complete fantasies. we had 170 members of congress led by brad snyder out of illinois strongly support a house resolution that called for the u.s. to remain in the agreement. i sent a letter to rex tillerson back this early spring begging him to have every leverage he had as secretary of state to stay in the agreement because all of our lives the united states has been the leader in the economy, in security, in fighting there terrorism, in img the environment this so many different ways, the epa. and now in the most important of all, the existential issue of our century, we have given up leadership at a time when we are most needed we are most absent. tom friedman's written again and again about the economic, the job prospects of adapting to climate change whether there are 30% more workers in the solar industry now than in the coal fields. one in every 15 new jobs in the u.s., last year department of labor the single greatest job category, new category that needed to be fulfilled was wind turbine edge floor. [laughter] -- engineer. if any of you are looking to recommend what your kids need to do, they can go be wind turbine engineers. and the whole world is going on without us. you see with the tpp, the trans-pacific partnership, article yesterday that 27 countries now getting together with japan to do what we should have done, and they're going to do it without us. and now those countries are saying, stepping forward to do on climate change and green energy what we should be leading and doing on. you know, the word's going to go on without us, and the states will go on without us. you probably saw a couple of years ago they announced their going all electric, following tesla's lead, which is terrific. wonderful article two weeks ago about vermont energy stepping out and saying we're going to do everything we can to make the independent households and the companies of vermont as independent of the grid as we can make them. sort of the opposite of what most energy companies are doing, recognizing that that's the way to move forward. so we're taking this exit ramp just when the intense commercial opportunities that adapting to paris would bring to every one of us. and we lose our seat at the table. you know, our international commitment to climate change, it isn't just climate change. there's so many other things that we do with the other countries that we then sacrifice. i mean, you don't just have to read the president's transcripts of his conversations with the president of mexico or the prime minister of australia the other day. but china, india, israel, japan, the european union, russia, iran, pope francis, everybody was part of paris. the only two countries that joined us in rejecting it, syria and nicaragua. i'm not quite sure that's the company that we want to be proud of keeping. and the paris agreement is probably the prime example of seeing how the sustainable development goals, 1-17, are actually coming alive in public policy. stg-13, which you know that's all about climate change, but also sustainable development goal 17 which is committing to partnership and cooperation with the global community in order to solve world problems. so 13 and 17. and in some ways, abandoning 17 is maybe as important or more important than 13 because of all the other things we're not going to be able to live with. david victor is a professor at the university of california-san diego, and i'm going the quote. u.s. international credibility is essential to not just protecting the environment, but also managing immigration, sharing intelligence, slowing the spread of nuclear weapons, avoiding pandemics and a host of other things americans care about. .. my friend bill foster the only peachy physicist in the congress was able to add an amendment in committee that said climate change is a national security priority. and some bad folks try to take it out on the house floor, and god bless we had enough republicans along with democrats to kill the attempt to take it up. it is a part of the national act as a ghost to the senate. rising sea levels i talked about but it's also melting ice and argued all the different national security things that come up in the top of the northern hemisphere. the mosquito borne disease, the droughts in syria, rising temperatures. what we heard from the generals and admirals is climate change will create so many internal security frictions and tensions that we're going to have to respond to. we are now part of the long piece, the last major war was 1945. instead there's been something like 320 civil wars since 1945 that a mostly caused by fight for resources that will be aggravated by climate change. i'm very proud, the states are reacting. i'm very proud of governor mcauliffe, our attorney general market, virginia is one of the first states to step up its a even if the as is withdrawing from paris, virginia is not. over 1000 businesses and investors have said they will go a long with the people are committing to a low carbon policies. 400 u.s. cities have committed to cut carbon pollution. i promise you i will be the strongest advocate that i can be for staying in paris, for rejoining paris when the appropriate leadership is back in place. and to be as resolutely optimistic as we can be. i was thinking about machiavelli and the prince road there are some diseases that are very difficult to recognize early on but easy to treat. later they are easy to recognize and impossible to treat. that's somewhere where they are right now on climate change. the scientists, the report leaked today, again clearly points out how dangerous climate change has been for the rest of the world. we just have to get use leadership out there. the rest of the world will come along and follow our lead. and i just at the moment pray that they don't follow our lead in pulling out of paris. i would love to take a question. i'm so glad dr. ingram is here to save me from the hardwoods and answer the really good ones. so thank you very much for inviting me. [applause] >> microphones on bikes congressman beyer, thank you very much. great introduction to this topic. my first question, first of all, let me welcome you to this meeting of your constituents. you must have a third of the room guessing are your constituents. >> i hope so. >> and my first question to you was going to be how do you get to be, go from being a car salesman to being an internationalist and the believer in the sg ease in the u.n.? you explain that to us. it's in your blood. i up across the hall working for the foreign affairs committee, and my first exposure to the amendment, percy was republican senator from illinois who is a very progressive member of the senate. and i followed the percy and emmett and i went to asia. when i came back, what i saw there was that the women were doing the work in the field. the men were in the villages, the coffee shops. the women were unloading the trucks of cement blocks and the man, the driver was sitting on the curb watching. that really socialize me to the importance of the percy amendment, of paying extra special attention bringing women into the development process because basically in many countries 50% of the population was left out of the economic process. >> i'm so pleased that you know about it. >> i'm old enough. >> it's a wonderful thing. and they're sort of two different pieces there. the one is the elevation of women. i know that's one of the sustainable development goals, and an incredibly important one. we, with carolyn maloney is a member of congress on upper east side of new york, i had the second most educated congressional district in the country thanks to all of you. she has the first. we been working together on congressional resolutions and changing the regulations to get more women in corporate leadership. you find companies that of more women on the boards, the more women in the sea suites grow fast, have higher caps and are more prospal. countries once again have greater gdp. i'm the chief that something called the fair representation act which is among the other impacts should increase the number of women in congress by an enormous percentage by moving to multimember districts where even both parties want you to incentive to put women on their slight, on the ticket. those would both be very helpful. i went to williams college which is a tiny little thing and worcester, massachusetts, and the only graduate program they had was in development economics. as an economics major every professor i had was a development economist who would spend all of their summers in growing economies. that very much was the intellectual background that i was raised with. >> before we get into the sge and climate change, i'm sure that newspaper report that you reference today is on everybody's mind. for anybody who didn't see it there's a government report written by 13 government agencies based on thousands of studies, which is according to the report the most solid documentation of the human influence on climate change. there's an issue as to whether or not the administration is going to release the report. does your committee get access to unfiltered copy of it? what can you all do to make sure that we see the original report? >> so the majority members of my committee a have access to it if they ask for it. i don't think it is routinely shared with us. one of the things that i was proud us about in government it's democrat led or republican-led, is when it's transparent. once again i think the obama administration did a very good job at transparency. and if you right now i do hope it's a needless fear but clearly people to lick the report didn't think so, was that a very important initiative like this put together by all these different agencies might never see the light of day, which is why it got leaked. thank goodness it is in the public sphere and we can now look at it and really take it apart. but we are seeing so many people bail from noaa, the epa because they feel that they are in a position where the administration leadership is going to suppress their viewpoint or move into place whether or not relevant. i wish that were not true. climate change, one of the things i been arguing now for years is a climate change should not be a partisan issue. should not be democrats against republicans are liberals against conservatives and it should not be matter of religious belief is that we should be looking at the sites, looking at the facts together and making the best decisions that we can. >> you talked about the need for government leadership in climate change, internationally. you also talked about the fact that there's a lot going on at the local level and in corporations. like yourself i'm an optimist. and i see what's happening in the corporate community. match i took a look at the strategies and some of the large multinational corporations, and i was struck by how many of them are embedding, some of the sges and their strategies. there was one company i look at that has committed to go carbon neutral by 2020. and in the process it would say $500 million on energy. and i look at that, i see what the corporations have done and the pledges the thousand corporation jamaican, i see with the mayors and cities are doing. and i say to myself, okay, maybe it's not that bad that we don't have the federal -- made at the local level to corporations, through private citizens we are going to get 80 or 90% of where we would have been with strong federal leadership anyway. but then you say that leadership is very important. where do you come out on this? we are going to get by okay the next three and half years and we're going to make progress? >> yes, i think we will continue to make progress in many ways. clearly, not only, don't want to be particularly partisan but looking at the seven months, six months since the new president has come in, the major agenda has been rolling back obama era regulations on clean air, clean water, on labor, lots of things like that. it has been afforded moving agenda. it's been reversing. that could hurt us over the next three and half years but you're right, i think there are other pieces of our economy and culture and society they continue to move forward. we are going to miss some of the big things. for example, i am a huge proponent of a carbon tax. we need to price carbon appropriately. i'm not alone. i was with the chairman or ceo of ups last night to said that's part of our platform. even though we drive all those brown trucks around we can stand a gas tax increase especially the ghost to helping infrastructure and the like. exxon mobil, dp, rex tillerson was for a carbon tax at least when you set of exxon mobil. and so there are very real thing so we can do appropriately price carbon and you get a very different reaction to climate change across the country. people adapt on vehicle miles traveled, where you live, the kind of cars they buy, the decisions they make on appliances in important ways. that will not happen at a local level. >> i'm not aware of any member of congress getting elected on a platform of a carbon tax. you may be fairly unique. >> i was pretty clear in 2014. >> and that leads to my question of how do you talked your constituents about these issues? i know what you say when you're in norfolk as you told us that, in norfolk is a fairly sophisticated community. not all of your communities are tied to the defense industry, to the global economy the way norfolk is. you've got more rural areas, and what do you say when you are in more conservative neighborhoods? and what sort of questions and push back do you get? >> so i was lieutenant governor for eight years i did have that statewide experience being in the tobacco fields and the coal fields in the shenandoah valley. i don't right now. right now i am very spoiled. in arlington -- ed whelan is smarter than i am. i have more members of congressional staff in anybody. more federal employees, more federal contract employees. i never need to talk down, half an inch to the people talking ae talking about. it's wonderful because i can point out that a deeply believe the best leaders are the ones who think long-term, not just about the next election by ten, 20, 50 years down the road. if we think long-term than climate change jumps right out as the biggest thing that we have to deal with. also some other issues look differently when you think about them over a generation or two generations. immigration, for example, who will do the work if we don't have some meaningful immigration reform right now when you get to someplace, let's take the coalfields for example, which is been devastated. the coal jobs have largely gone away. it's a lot harder to talk about climate change there, but you still have to do it. i know that people like mark warner and tim kaine that have to campaign in the coalfields, they don't pull any punches. they talk about the fact that climate change is real, it's affecting these families and that we have to find new ways forward. part of it is the obama administration despite the so-called war on cole spent more money on new coal technologies, smart call in the department of energy and any administration before trying to find ways to help these communities. with hal rogers who is a republican from the coalfields of eastern kentucky and to others we were the four lead sponsors of the reclaim act which was a matter of taking the fees to clean up old coal mines to rebuild the economic economies in these cold communities. it is an either or. you can find ways to move forward with it. >> is the jobs issue working in the climate change? you look at the investments that automobile industry are incurring. you look at the fact that in some areas the investment that's going in to wind and solar is being competitive with traditional -- does that work with constituents? and the potential for u.s. competitiveness in the world. >> and it works best with constituents in places where those are happening. for example, if you go to kansas, oklahoma, those members of congress and those political leaders there realize with the wind investments there have quite a lot of jobs and a lot of revenue for them. the people in northern virginia don't care so much about those jobs but they do realize that there's lots going on there. these industries are going really quickly. >> on the sges, what strikes me about this new federal global goal is the millennium development goals were basically i set of specific goals designed to get donors to provide more foreign assistance in developing countries. the sdgs are much different. they are universal. they're supposed to apply to all countries. and there is very little focus in the sdgs on donor assistance. there's a lot of focus on generating revenues internally in countries on domestic resource mobilization and on the role of the private sector. to what extent is there or is there not any intention in congress to the sdgs, and appreciation and awareness that they're supposed to apply to america and in some ways they apply to the america nature and spirit in the fact that they really bring the private sector in two helping to achieve these goals? >> so you've got me stumped. i honestly can say that in the 331 months that it in your unlettered any mention to sustainable development goals. i'm not on the foreign affairs committee so perhaps they do there, and i'm not on appropriations so perhaps it comes up in those conversations. but in the committees that i'm on and then the general debate on the floor i've never heard anyone mentioned. >> i think that's telling, and i think that is a charge to this audience because it's clear that members of congress are not hearing from their constituents. are not hearing from the advocacy groups about the sustainable development goals, and before i turned to the audience to join this conversation, and let me say that this is being live stream as you know and it there will be some questions from outside this room. advise this group of policy activists, some of whom are political activist, too, how they could be involved in bringing the role of the sdgs through the congress to the executive branch and to their fellow americans. >> so i live in a rural -- as thomas mentioned earlier on, and i deeply believe the political is typically the ignored piece. which means that to the extent that you can get involved, and again on a completely nonpartisan basis with your members of congress in the state where you live, to talk about sustainable do not the goals will he makes a difference. so most of us spend the amazing that a time going from meeting to meeting to meeting but when someone comes up and talks to us about a given issue, we get educated. we can't possibly know everything ahead of time. there's a wonderful woman who is about four-foot 11, four-foot ten named annabelle fish who lives in alexandria, virginia. every time i see her at any that she has another thing that i have to go do. she use has piece of paper with a fillet on it to go back and figure out why this is wrong or that's wrong. i'm educated because of it. a second piece of that is we, my staff and i will probably take 12-212-20 meetings a day in the office. armand what -- will schedule me whenever he can. i end up learning about lots and lots about things i didn't otherwise know about. we had a visit yesterday with some people from dialysis clinics talking about people that are on -- have seven more corbett are defectors and what can be maintained. if folks here came and called on every one of the 535 members of congress, one by one to talk about the sustainable development goals they would be a lot smarter i was trying to think if you had a poll right now, and honest full of the 535 members, let's just take the house, 435, and see how much of you have heard of sustainable development goals and answer honestly. i don't want to guess but it could be a pretty small number. but a year for if it when he visited the whole crew it could be a really very high percen pe. my wife is calling. i recognize the ring. [laughing] >> if she's watching this maybe we take the first question from your wife as to when you will be home. >> where is dinner, right. the floor is open to i soon there's a microphone. >> you make the hard decisions. [inaudible] >> please stand up and introduce yourself here. >> mark da silva, a constituent in falls church any work for a company called climate -- [inaudible] to tackle some of the toughest problems we face today and so thank you for you and your families history of service. my question to you is how do we in the private sector work together with members of congress in both the house and the senate to change the narrative around climate change and sustainable development goals from one international compliance to one more of job creation and economic opportunity, both in terms of sustainable energy and infrastructure and poverty combatants? >> your question holds the answer to it also because if you look and say why, and so i'm speculating, but i think from a reasonable position, why is there so much opposition or skepticism about climate change in the united states? most of it is driven by economics. there's a lot more skepticism in the coal fields been easier. there's a lot of skepticism in wyoming with a big power of -- or louisiana with your drawings all of the step out of the oil in the gulf. because a look and they say well, if climate change is real and unemployed. this community is devastated. to the extent we can rebuild and economic base around green energy, around adaption to climate change we can make it a lot easier for people to move away from an incorrect reading of the signs, but a correct reading wed devastate them. -- reading would devastate them. somebody said the other day, told me the other day you can't, the climate skeptics of everything at stake can't just blow them off and say believe the science because they are scared. >> thank you very much. i'm a member of the unesco task force. i moved from geneva for years, so just a comment about switchman. i'm sure you know very well that both nation process to give an idea, switchman if you get 100,000 person, it would be sorry protest. i don't think you have it in america. so my comment about america is let information and education at local level. but i am very good opinions for another thing. we launched last week a big project unesco with the chinese with the library of congress to help local areas along the silk road, over 70 countries, to get involved through knowledge, culture heritage and natural heritage. and one of the objectives is to support green neighbors, sustainable development goals. because last april at a world bank annual meetings, a study confirmed over 90% of the last corporations don't know after almost two years what to do with sustainable development goals. there will also be government, last month in new york is rather discouraging. so i do not think i will change -- [inaudible] i do not think that the approach let's have donald trump for or against. the issue is bring it at personal and local level, inform, educate people and they are serious to me of their culture heritage and natural heritage. in that respect america is still part of sustainable -- america's needed more than ever. when i started in year 2000, my project, my task was, unesco, i did not find confidence anywhere as i found here with smithsonian institution. the knowledge is here. the entrepreneurial spirit is a little bit tired, fatigue in america but innovation, it's in america. so it's up to you. go to your local people. they will, educate them and it will challenge you and you will see the resources in america beyond federal government took so bring local and personal life and you will succeed. still america is the best. thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you for your perspective. you talked about switchman having an initiative and referendum, like california, places like that. one of the interesting factoids, half of the referendum and world history is been held in switzerland. >> my name is chuck woolery, former chair of the united nations association council and a really wanted to second what you said about the advocacy capacity of citizens and u.s. i started my work on global issues or goals back in 1980, presidential commission of world hunger and i have to say that your role a as a citizen is so much more powerful than your vote. encourage you to do that. what i wanted to hear you question the assertion that climate change is the greatest national security threat to development that my experience in the organization with about 100 u.s. nonprofit working to get all of different issues with each computer with different, on different campaigns, different issues. to the degree it computer was the degree it didn't work together. if there is a nuclear event, climate change is not going to be a problem. if it is a pandemic, climate change is not going to be the problem. so what i'd like to do is a genius for my perspective of the sustainable development goals is a comprehensive approach that it takes to address all of the various issues that we face. and lest we do in a comprehensive way in the context of her own national security, we will fail as we do with the world summit for children's golf with the millennium development goals and the world hunger goals back in the 1980s. i want to challenge that perspective that we do need to have a comprehensive approach, particularly in the idea of human rights. talking about universal decoration of human rights are taking human rights as a justice issue. that's really the issue. until we do that all of these other separate issues are going to fail, is my prediction. >> that's a very valuable perspective. thank you very much. i came to politics worried about the threat of nuclear war back window is 10,000 warheads aimed at the soviet union and vice versa. now those things have been reduced by a factor of 85% but they are still very real. as you say, a couple of nuclear weapons changing room perspective on everything. -- change your perspective and everything. >> thank you, congressman. my name is christopher ben waugh. i stopper for the democratic whip steny were as those a program assistant so i too many jobs representing here right now. also my mom wants to thank you for volvo. >> thank you mother for me. >> appreciated. i appreciate your anecdote speaking of norfolk because i'm president of the site at old dominion university and in order to get my club sometimes if it rains walking through campus and there are fish going to the campus. so very weird. my question this morning nikki haley on the today show was supporting president trump's stance on pulling out of the cop21 agreement. and the development there wouldn't benefit u.s. businesses, but she said just because we are pulling out of this agreement doesn't mean we do not believe in climate change. i was wondering if you had an opinion on whether or not we can still develop sustainably in the way that goes with the agreements and, while leaving the rest of the countries as we essentially would while keeping the american people, businesses interest in mind. thank you. >> yes, and no. it's a couple get a question and it's accompanied answer. as we said we can continue to move forward but we will not be moving forward in the global leadership role that we would have if we stayed in paris. as a business person i think it's, the magic about whether we stay in something like the paris agreement, cop21, whether it's good for our business profit is not the right metric to be using. there's a lot of other ways businesses will adapt, can survive. my favorite business book is who moved the cheese because it's different every year. no matter what business you are in. [inaudible] >> i haven't even read it. the answer is yes, and no but it would be a lot better. i'm glad ambassador haley says i'm a change is real and we have to adapt. the more people in the trump administration who have the perspective that this is something we have to deal with gives me great hope, rather than epa administrator pruitt or the president. people who are on the hoax side. >> hey, my name is leon penn brook, i'm a student at williams college and an intern. i just wanted to ask you what role do you think that we as students can play in helping to encourage environmentally responsible development, both domestically and abroad is because often you feel people dismiss our voices because of her youth and i was wondering how you think that we can amplify our voices and yours in finding a solution to the problems we face. >> i think you guys are doing a great job already. we were talking just before we broke about how the millennials and younger are so much more understanding and committed to these issues, that as you grow older and take over and would move out to past year we will be in a much better position. i don't have any statistical evidence to back it up, i knew very few people under the age of the that up with climate change is real and we need to adapt it right away that feel something like that is a personal threat to them and to their future. it's folks more like my age who for whom climate change wasn't even part of the lexicon for the first 75% of her life who are a lot more skeptical. and by the way, as a number of the wonderful people here have mentioned, your advocacy does change a lot of things. so whether you're working in a nonprofit or just working on a campaign knocking on doors, and anything in between all that makes a difference and changes things. i almost never quote charles krauthammer but he has written a couple as evasive about how despite our presidents erratic leadership, there are a lot of other institutions in our society that are pushing back that are trying to keep the car on the road. >> i think we had a few live stream questions from twitter. >> what's twitter? [laughing] >> good afternoon. my name is michelle thompson i work with international atomic develop and counsel and also a member of -- here's a question that we got on twitter not too long ago. without presidential leadership, how can congress, civil society and so forth less advanced std agenda in the u.s.? >> we get the same question asked a lot of different ways. in congress assemble as little t right now in the sense that the republicans control the house, the senate and the white house. so in the interim i think we should look to republican leaders in the house and senate. ed royce to his republican chair of the foreign service, foreign relations committee, people like lindsey graham on the senate side, and asked them to be champions for the sdgs. we certainly that it is a lot of resolutions and even bills on the democratic side, but without republican leadership they would just disappear. they are five-minute comments and gone. at civil society, we talked about the many, many different things you can do. i forget what the number of environmental ngos in the country is but it's in the tens of thousands alone, that can lift us up. by the way, when back half an hour, educating the members of congress to what this sustainable develop goals are is a great first step. if not, the members, lease they alleged that. >> thank you. and then here's another one we got from one of our online viewers. it says it seems that goal 17 is imperative for governments to meet goal 13. 13. i especially see incredible partnerships forming that simultaneously address refugee needs, energy needs and impacts of climate change. if the paris agreement can spur action among parties is as varied as the u.n. refugee agency, ikea foundation and the jordanian government to build a solar array to power a refugee camp, but can the u.s. government and our legislators do now to partner on goal 13 targets and continue to lead the world and humanitarian response? all this despite trump's decision to abandon the paris agreement. [laughing] >> a good piece of that would come from the executive branch. the usaid, state, people looking for those partnerships, things like what the do with the jordanian government. the simplest thing that we could do at the federal level would be to raise our commitment to the money that we best in international development. i still believe we are the largest commitment in the world, but as a percentage of our gdp were somewhere in the middle of the pack. remember in europe i believe it was 2% of gdp that was the goal for international development, or two tenths of 1%, .7. switzerland, liechtenstein, we're always look at the .7. i don't know what the u.s. is by the believe it's anywhere near .7. that would be a very simple step forward. the interesting thing is the presidents skinny budget which are things like limited the national endowment for arts, humana's, et cetera, et cetera none of that is becoming real. at the appropriate is, democrat republican in congress are much more protective of a strong federal government and the presidents skinny budget. in fact, the budget he sent down that we're in right now cut in hx billion dollars and the appropriators, democrat and republican lumped it up by 6 billion instead. what we need to do is try to take that .2 to close to .7 and that was great the resources to do a lot of the kind of things that are twitter questioner had asked about. >> thank you. >> i think we have time for a few more questions. >> i am a carbon neutrality bill at university of california, so i have kind of a local advocate lands, this is not intended to be anti-paris at all, but has the notion been considered because the contributions to pairs are voluntary that of pulling out and causing international outrage in a wide range of fears be considered a positive overall for climate action? >> may be. there are some interesting studies that show more americans learned about paris because he pulled out that date if we had stayed in. so perhaps there's something to be gained by that, yes. more education is always better. that the more people know. >> i'm retired foreign service officer. if congress can't permit the total size of the department of state in the foreign service? >> no, but there's a lot that congress won't be able to do. clearly the trump recommendations of the skinny budget for the 31 or 20% cutbacks in state department slash usaid budget, they will be cut somewhat but not nearly that much. maybe not at all. one of the things that i i perceive and are not on the appropriations committee is that the appropriators, both parties, are intentionally protective and committed to programs that they've been working with for decades. and believe in them and know about the programs in great depth. but we can't change is what secretary of state tillerson is doing little by little by not filling positions, by essentially just through attrition. i met with one of my econ offices last night who has just come back from overseas and he said little by little which are finding embassy by him as he is just through attrition there hollowing them out. we objected very strongly to the notion last week that the datagram was loading them take the commitment to democracy and justice out of the state departments mission which is back your comments about human rights is the core of everything. if you strip away, that was the great contribution, jimmy carter made up some good things and some bad things but at the very top was with brzezinski, this commitment of the u.s. to lead on human rights. a terrible thing to retreat on that. it's going to be bad because we don't have leadership committed to diplomacy as, with soft power, hard power, smart power as the centerpiece over american leadership but the budget implication will not be as bad as the skinny budget. >> thank you very much. well, i'm very pleased to see this young man here, although he is on a new elite high school. the thing is that una has had a great program, a model u.n. program. in fact, has been trying to get children involved in understanding what the u.n. does. but mainly it's in elite high schools, and so most of the children, what we tried to do because i belong to a sorority that works with una, we tried to go to the inner-city schools, to go to schools were children were not aware and having worked with those people for a long time, children know practically nothing about the united nations. and so i think one of the places we have to really began is when kids are young to try to, at least college students are working on a subject that i talk to people in my church who say the u.n. is just talk, jack jack jack. these are people you would think it would be much more involved. but i think we would have to do a big education program here in the united states and maybe we can find not to our present education of secretary i'm sure, but we should do a great job with trying to educate the children who are young about what the united nations does. >> that's a very good point and in civic education in general. and -- [inaudible] >> that's very good. it is a public high school. it's an elite public high school. >> i go to the elite public high school langley high school. [laughing] you talked a lot about in your speech about how the cycle of under one administration and the democratic admin decision we didn't have climate administration and in other the next administration most of them would be repealed. what do you think is the best way as a congressman to end of this cycle and enact permanent legislation against climate change? >> well, so the short term for george airy perspective of the democrats take back the house and the senate in 2018. and elect a democratic president in 2020. i do think though, i was most impressed by ruth bader ginsburg said recently that the symbol of america should be the eagle, it should be the pendulum because we swing back and forth. this gentleman talked about his time in geneva. i learned many things in my four years in switzerland but the one attrition most is a commitment to shared power, in switzerland they have no head of state be the only country in the will of the doesn't have a head of state. they have a seven person federal counsel. when i was there the were five different political parties of the seven from the right people's party to the left social democrats. now it's down to four i think everything is done by consensus. i can't personally swear to this anecdote body heard when paul ryan was made speaker that neither he nor nancy pelosi had ever had a one-on-one conversation and all the years that they had served together. so what you have is the absence of shared power. i'm in charge, therefore, straight partyline vote. one of the problems with the affordable care act which a very committed to but not a single republican voted for it. you'll get the swings back and forth. so anything we can do culturally to move to an idea of shared power we would be a lot better off. i mentioned earlier the fair representation act which is trying to get away from single-member districts and plurality voting. if you get really bored, look at the fair vote.org. changes way would elect members of congress have people instead of money for the extremes of the primaries running for the senate and the general election try to get people interested in working together across party lines. >> thank you. my name is matt and on that part of the time in your district and the other half in coal country in colorado. i will ask you about cold. i will ask you about a balancing act because one national goal for the united states is our budget and having somewhat of a balanced budget and other goal is to sustainable development goal. how do you balance the two of those and what do you see? >> take you for asking your question about budget because we never talk about that up here. interestingly most of the tea party folks that were elected in 2010, there to centerpieces of the argument was the hated obamacare and that they were desperately worried about the size of our public debt which is something to worry about. and yet the budget that the house republicans presented, i forget how many trillion they added to the debt in the next ten years, and their budget wasn't any better. it was the same number. so without doing a whole primer on the federal budget, the challenge is entitlements. it's not a spent on development aid. medicare, medicaid, so secure energy of the day. at 70% will be 100% in our lifetime. the debate is whether it's 2024 or 2032 but it's coming. the other 30% half his defense any of the 15% is everything else. 2/10 of 1%, the state department, epa, education, energy, on and on and on and on. it and currently difficult to balance the budget in that 15% to get to do things that get rid of the nea and the neh which don't make enough different, drop and a bucket or gift sum up get your arms around the entitlement issue, social security, medicare and medicaid. that doesn't conflict with moving from .2 to .7 in terms of our commitment to international. if we did it would be a lot easier to do. getting our armed threat entitlement, that's a different political question. it's easier to have the idea, people come forward with simpson-bowles which was a major step forward, but everyone was afraid to vote for it because of the short-term political implications in the next election. >> my name is nicholas rubio. i am from -- [inaudible] talking about climate action, energy is usually the main thing but waste is also becoming an increasing issue here i am very concerned about plastic and how much plastic we currently use. so to effectively tackle the threats of climate change we would also need to change our lifestyle. how can we, like plastic, target something like that, like we did with delicious and she -- with fuel efficiency, for example? >> look at the california example. i believe it's california that is banned plastic bags. there have been congressional push backs try to prevent other states from doing the same thing. but looking where you can do with either state laws or local regulations, even congressional laws, there are ways to move efficiency forward. we should do it. one of my favorite small examples is steve chu who is our nobel prize-winning secretary of energy, phd physicist, at top 15 he made a low speech where he talked about desktop modes and how this is development and now they all too often a member the exact, i'm not an electrical engineer, the average or whatever but he said it was equivalent to one year to move from, i will make up the number but the relative scale is the same, trump ten amps one amp, was enough to power an automobile fleet for a year in the united states. over the years have seen a huge change in desktop motives even as the disappearance of desktop motives as part of that. so anywhere we can look for big and small savings we should. an interesting piece that lindsey graham and written a couple of years ago that said where we are today with the political votes not there to get carbon pricing may be just as good to spend equal amount of money on innovations, that you get a huge net savings in carbon there, too. >> my name is jordan. i'm also a constituent, old town alexandria. i serve on the sustainable development committee and organizing city event so thank you so much for being here. i'm a presidential management fellow with the department of energy so i see firsthand a lot of the great work that's going on that often times people don't see some wanted to see if you had anything you are particularly proud of that congress has acted on, whether it comes to sustainable development or any of the sges that you are particularly proud of? >> first of all, for everybody who lives in a sadistic please vote for me. tip o'neill first rule of politics, the story when he ran for councilman, whatever and then came home and the lady next door was brushing her porch and he thanked her for voting for them and she said she didn't vote for him because he never asked her for her vote. so jordan, please. the one of the things i think we should be proud of is, i mentioned my science space technology committee is not very bipartisan. in fact, it's the way opposite. the foreign affairs committee in the house is very bipartisan. eliot engel the democrat, and was the republican work ready well together. they can to get a lot of piece of legislation out of it that or not, think they're both committed to development. that's a really good thing. on one of the sges is on women's health, and i'm very proud of the fact that not only did we pass the affordable care act but so far we have defended it. because teenage pregnancies come back to brookings. we are at an all-time low in america number of abortions in america is a lowest since roe v. wade and the rate of healthcare increases is the smallest it's been in a long time. you have to look at it piece by piece and there's an enormous way different velocities in congress about how you deal with poverty. virtually everybody there, even paul ryan the leader of the republican party is interested in taking the 40% of american children that are on medicaid and finding ways to lift them out of poverty. strategy are different, packets are different but the commitment is real. >> let me use your question as an opportunity to lobby you. and everybody here, and it picks up on the issue of national security that you have raised. i think the development community is coming behind you that one of the greatest threats and challenges to global development is state fragility. and within a few years, 50% of the poverty in the world is going to be in fragile states. these are states that are not able to protect their citizens. they can't deliver services. there is little political legitimacy, and the development and foreign-policy communities have not come up with very effective strategies. for how you helped countries get out of fragility. we in the development community have been approaching this as a development issue. we are finally learning and paying attention, it's a political issue. it's an issue of safety and security. there is legislation being drafted now by a coalition of ngos working with some members of the house to develop, to require the administration to develop a strategy, policy, a more caring approach. i would say this is probably the most important thing that congress do for sdg 16. so when that comes to the congress and you see that i'll make sure those people bring to your attention and you can talk to your colleagues on the house foreign affairs committee. how's about? >> that would be great. >> with that, i'm not allowed to end the session and thank you to somebody else is going to do this, but this is been a real pleasure for me to deal with you, and i thank you for your strong commitment to climate change, to the sdgs and to use leadership in the world. thank you. [applause] >> thank you again, once again to mr. george ingram and representative don beyer. we sincerely appreciate your time today added to our audience members and wrote as well as those online enjoyed the conversation. before i formally close the program i'd like to take this time to make a few quick thank yous. first of all to our executive director paula and are keen uptight assistant is especially tiffany for continue to support us every step of the way. also to our events lead, salute for conceptualizing and leading this event, to c-span and nexus media for generously providing coverage of this afternoon, to our sponsors listed in the program, to our friends from young professionals in foreign-policy, also to my fellow committee members who were instrumental in helping behind the scenes, and also a special thank you to mr. brett blair and chris hopkins from the youth collaboration on foreign affairs. their youth led coalition focus on leading discussions on foreign affairs and they are also one of our new partners in helping to promote. at the summer i would like to give them the opportunity to say a few words to help promote his organization. [applause] >> thank you. good evening. congressman beyer, mr. ingram and other guests who are joining us, my name is brett blair and executive director of the youth collaboration on foreign affairs. i'm joined today by several of our team is colluding super hopkins, thomas liu, and dave husband. i would also like to give special thanks to patrick and the unc a for allowing us to speak. the youth collaboration of foreign affairs is a truly revolutionary movement. when the first foreign-policy think tank comprised of passion high school and college students. 60 strong and growing. young people don't have a say in foreign-policy process. this void led to us because we understand that we are the ones who are inheriting this world that it is left to us. as tomorrow sleet we help our generation can play a crucial role in shaping today's policy. thithis is a notion. >> the organization and with his we aspire to petition and grasp policymakers, the public and the world. thank you for your time. [applause] >> thank you, brett. in closing i just have a few thoughts to relate to you. i would like to reiterate the worst that representative don beyer said on the boards of keeping our international commitment to global climate change. i believe it is indeed a global -- aspect international and goodwill in our world today. by electing to withdraw from the paris accords we run the risk of losing our final seat at the table and given way to allowing other players to set the priorities which may or may not be in favor of our prosperity here in the united states and abroad. furthermore, as alluded to by congressman beyer come to my mental challenges we face they do not take into account our national borders as the highlight of the diverse examples across the united states and the world. thus resolving this challenge will ultimately require global collective action from each and every single one of you here today, online, everyone else on this planet. today i challenge you to make the commitment by getting involved with united nations association of the united states of america. please consider joining our chapter here in washington, d.c., to become more involved in an page and our common shared interest to champion for affordable clean energy, build and develop sustainable cities, clean water and sanitation and so much more. as the chair of the sustainable development committee i'm truly humbled to lead such a dynamic and passionate group of students and professionals in people from all walks of life are dedicated to making positive difference here in our local communities and beyond. we strive to develop programs to work actively assist and support strong u.s.-u.n. partnership to increase public knowledge, advocacy and community engagement. furthermore, our chapter is composed of various programmatic activities that work on various topics such as human rights, international law, peace and security and, of course, the sustainable development goals to name a few. today i invite you to join my committee as work to address and solve these issues. .. the [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] who >> it's not easy to patch a very large organization and keep on patching it month after month. today we have to really think of proactive defense. we cannot keep reacting to attacks anymore. we have to set traps. we have to create a customized environment. we have to engage in hunting. >> the center for global development tells the discussion on the findings of a new report on fighting ebola outbreaks. this is an hour and a

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