Cool august day, what a fantastic turnout on capitol hill on an august day. And thats really due to the extraordinary lineup of people presenting and talking to you today, im 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 20152030. So were just two years into this, and already theres 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 wont go further. Id like paula to tell you more about the association. We are extraordinarily honored this afternoon, theyll be introduced individually, for congressman beyer whos 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 were grateful that hes here on an august afternoon. And im particularly delighted that our moderator this afternoon is a colleague of mine for many, many years. Were not in the same organization now, dr. George ingram whos 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 hes now at the brooking institute. They will be further introduced in time. Let me now introduce paula bowland who is the working executive director. Im 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 youre 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 theres 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 yearround model u. N. Program that we do with High School Students. We partner with several organizations, and its wonderful for networking, for really bringing these goals to the local level. Thats what weve 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, whos here, and has been organized and led by a very active Committee Member, thomas lu, who its 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 cspan 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. Its 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, id 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 im a proud member of the una nca Sustainable Development committee and above all, the event lead for todays program. Before i start, id 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] fathers day. Id also like to thank an individual for whom if i did not know, i wouldnt 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. Id like to thank him for his support. Unfortunately, he cant 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 its 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. Elmendorfs insight, i had the opportunity to learn more and be here today to advocate on their behalf. As a quick reminder, as paula said, were currently live on National Television thanks to cspan and their teams effort for broadcasting todays 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. Todays hashtags are hashtag congress and fdgs. On this afternoon were 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 isnt only my role model, hes americas 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 virginias 8th Congressional District in 2014, congressman beyer servedded as twoterm incumbent Lieutenant Governor and most importantly, ambassador to switzerland under president obama. Before inviting congressman beyer up to deliver the speech, after speech well 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 NationsSustainable Development goals. Congressman becer will also provide a congressmans perspective on the need for strong leadership on Climate Action. With that, its 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 wont flattery wont kill you as long as you dont 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 its 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 its the Number Two High School in virginia. And im 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 62yearold 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] youve probably seen, its 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 im 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 4557 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. Its still part of the law, and its 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 19451953, and my tad was over there keeping the peace my dad was over there keeping the peace. So my United Nations protect rate doesnt exist anymore. Its 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 im, 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 transpacific 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 were 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 weve been lifting out of poverty. Was that a matter of 137,000 people a day suddenly decided to work hard . No. Its 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 generals 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 didnt get along and the embassies, therefore, didnt 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 theres 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