An august day maybe because its a cool august day what a fantastic turnout on capitol hill and that is due to the extraordinary lineup of people who will be presenting and talking and that brings you here. Five years ago maybe before five years ago the United Nations with the corporations of the United States and many countries around the world began to plan for the future of world Global Developments and it would apply not only to the least developed countries but equally university to the critical space and affairs and human rights for development in the best equipped countries including the United States. Out of that conversation became this extraordinary set of Sustainable Development goals to lead the way for all countries voluntarily to collaborate and how we will achieve the outcomes of those goals as set forth for the years 20152030. We are two years into this and already theres significant progress to talk about the build on the progress of the millennium the following goals that we are successful by focusing across the world the attention of agencies and focusing the attention of leaders in almost all countries, 196 nations, signed this opportunity for voluntary cooperation to carry us forward. Probably all of you are well familiar with that said will go further but i like paula to tell you about the association and id like to say we are extraordinarily honored for congressman buyer has been a great supporter of international engagement, Foreign Affairs and speaking well of the United Nations and serving as one of our leading ambassadors as well as now in the house of representatives. We are grateful that he is here on an august afternoon and our moderator is a colleague of mine for many years and doctor ingram who was an outstanding leader and one of the great experts on the process of the us congress on Foreign Affairs his work on International Development and modernization. They will be further introduced in time and let me introduce paula who is our executive director, working executive director, i am voluntary and she carries out this extraordinary work. Thank you for being here. [applause] good afternoon. I am delighted to see a full house. Thank you 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 you and and the usa is to educate and mobilize americans for a Strong Partnership and that partnership is more critical than ever before. With all the budget cuts that Foreign Affairs and fields are facing more than ever our efforts to educate our communities to support the work of the United Nations and its many specialized agencies. Today you will learn more about the global goals and in particular on Climate Change and why we need to be an active voice in your community. This is your community. If you have not yet joined the United Nations on the National Capital area i hope you will consider doing it because theres so much you can get out of that network and you can join committees and we spoke with many different issues such as security and Sustainable Development in human rights and an active group of Young Professionals and a yearround Model Un Program which we do with High School Students and we partner with several organizations and its wonderful for networking and for bringing these goals the local level. Thats what weve been doing it una over the last few years. This event is sponsored by our una and attainable committee which is led by patrick who is here and has been organized and led by a very active Committee Member who has been a pleasure to work with and i think for him for his tireless work and commitment. I want to take a few seconds to think cspan who is with us as well as nexus media life, youth collaboration and Foreign Affairs, Young ProfessionalsForeign Policy and also to our donors. Thank you so very much especially again to congressman buyer for his support. Its to his office that we celebrate every december human rights day and so we look forward to your active engagement in q a so we can make a difference. We are the largest. [inaudible] we have 180 chapters. Thank you so much. Without further ado let me now call on thomas. [applause] thank you paula for the warm introduction. Good afternoon everyone. On behalf of the Sustainable Development committee and the rest of the una chapter i like to personally welcome all of you to the United States capital. The Sustainable Development also known as the epic fiji with congress. My name is thomas and im a rising senior and a proud member of the una Sustainable Development committee and above all the event leaves. Before i start id like to think my parents for encouraging and guiding me to become the person i am today. And to all the dads out there today, happy fathers day. Id also like to think it individual for whom if i did not know i wouldnt have the courage and ability to organize and that individual is no one other than mr. Edward. He was a former president of you and ca and una usa. Id like to thank him for support and a virtually he can be here today. I met him in 2016 una usa life summit where he held a roundtable discussion on the goals. He went on to secure my position at the Committee Member of una because since as river High School Students to join such a Prestigious Organization i also recommended which is. [inaudible] by following his insight i had the opportunity to learn more and be here today to ask on behalf of. As a quick reminder for those present in the room, as paula said, were live on National Television thanks to cspan and their efforts to broadcasting the events. Were also streaming through nexus media life to help encourage and engage our Online Support of audiences. Please be sure to follow at una and at Sustainable Development throughout the afternoon on twitter. After the panel will take questions from our audience member and through the online media platform. Todays hashtags are Climate Action and congress. On this afternoon were here to talk about the sustainable goals which is Climate Action. According to the un Climate Change presents the single biggest threat to development and its widespread unprecedented effects to supposedly the most vulnerable. In april of 2016 under the us leadership Member States of the United Nations signed a historic pairs climate agreement an agreement that set the stage for in a agenda. However, things have changed in this President Trump decided to withdraw from pairs climate agreement on june 1st it is imperative for american leaders to reaffirm the leadership role that they must play on the International Stage and Climate Change. Congressman buyer isnt only my role model but fighting against global Climate Change. I first met him as a volunteer for this Campaign Years ago when he encouraged me to stay involved in not only policy but politics. I went on to serve as a Campaign Intern during his reelection campaign. Before being elected to virginia, corpsman buyers served as a twoterm Lieutenant Governor of the commonwealth of virginia, the president of Virginia State senate and most of portly, ambassador to switzerland under president obama. Before inviting congressman buyer up to deliver his speech let me briefly say that after the congress and speech will be followed by a conversation between huntsman buyer and mr. Ingram. He served at americas Global Leadership coalition and senior fellow for Global Economy and development at the brook institution but we are pleased to help congressman buyers to hear for the first member of progress to speak about the us role in the importance of the United Nations disable goals. Huntsman buyer will also provide a lawmakers perspective on the need for a strong us leadership on the United Nations and most importantly on Climate Action. With that, its my great honor and privilege to welcome device Ranking Member of the House Committee science, feet and technology and my mentor. [applause] that is now my favorite introduction of my whole life. I forget who said flattery wont kill you as long as you dont inhale it but thank you. The one thing he got right is he may not be the greatest champion but when i was running for office in 2014 the simplest promise i made was that i would be the strongest, clearest voice that i could be to combat Climate Change. Sometimes its not so much important to be the best but to try your hardest to do that. Thomas, thank you very much and he goes to Langley High School in mclean virginia which used to be the number oneschool in virginia and then they created Thomas JeffersonMagnet School and now its the number two high school. Im thrilled 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 vote, please. In my primary in 2014 there were ten of us on the ballot in the average primary motor was a 62 yearold woman. I would be at the polls all day and not see anyone under the age of 50. Thank you for being a great role model for your generation and the generation above you, too. Thanks for inviting me here. There are more people in this room than in the rest of the building. Youre probably seeing that its completely deserted and i feel spoiled because im a member of congress that lives closest to the capital and i even though im. [inaudible] im delighted to come back whenever one else is in texas, california and things like that. Im especially humbled that you asked me to talk about the un and Climate Change in i feel very connected first to the un and mike grandmother, clara buyer who was my role model was a part of the american delegation to organize the un and she served as our us representative to the ilo from 4557 when they involuntarily kicked her out of the department of labor and she then worked for usaid for the next 15 years until they kicked her out at age 82. For the women in the room in 1972, just before they kicked her out, she authored something called the perfume amendment which, as she went around the world visiting one of the country she noticed that usaid money was training and education was unequally spent on the men and the boys so the purse amendment says it has to be spent equally on men and women and is still part of the loss and one of the rate pieces of our pride. I was born in the free territory which is a guided nations protectorate from 1953 and my dad was over there as Us Army First and Second Lieutenant keeping the peace. Might United Nations protectorate doesnt exist anymore its amazing they let me serve in the u. S. Congress and that the family is from belgium, france, england, scotland, my oldest child was adopted from dublin, ireland and lots of connections and feeling connected to the rest of the world. I am a democrat, a left centered democrat and in the first term, maybe my proudest moment was being one of only 20 democrats to vote. Trade promotion authorities for president obama and was a very strong supporter of the Transpacific Partnership in the trade Investment Partnership with europe. Going back to brinton woods which is about the time i was born because if you look at the world today it is so different from the world in 1950 because of our International Efforts because of the usaid and the trade organizations around the world there is a great piece in the sunday papers. Two decades ago with i pulled out and read quickly and will read slowly just about i believe the number was 137 people every day lifted out of poverty since the year 2007. I had dinner with a bunch of Board Members from some Corporation Last night and what we were doing on the capitol hill to address poverty and the chairman of this corporation sit next to me said they just need to go work harder. Some fox news perspective on poverty and i said what about those under 37000 people that we been lifting out of poverty was that a matter of 137 people a days decided to work harder and its the policies and investments in the leaderships that we provide that makes all the difference. Also, when thoughts. As thomas mentioned i was a master to switzerland in the bilateral investor ambassador but there for other ambassadors in geneva. The permanent to the un, the human rights commission. [inaudible] the first thing i did when i got there was read the inspector generals report on my mission in burn which is very unkind to the previoUs Ambassador who was a rich texan. And very unkind to the ambassador permanent representative to the un was a rich texan in geneva, they had their own jets side by side. The problem was a two ambassadors hated each other and they were both Texas Republicans and they didnt get along in the embassies didnt get along either. I made and had the opportunity to meet betty king who is our Us Ambassador to the United Nations the first week and we hugged and kissed and decided we would be the opposite for the next four years and best friends and it made such an enormous difference to have the un and bilateral embassy working closely together. I bring that up because betty because there was a North Carolina senator whose name is now out of my head the people my age will remember who halted the confirmation of our ambassador to the un in new york for most of the second clinton term but betty was number two there and wrote the chief. She was a principal chief staff person and once again i feel connected to all of this. Then the Climate Change when you first get to congress they ask you what committees want to be on and i said ways in appropriations and energy and commerce and i got my seventh and eighth choices which were the Science Committee and the National Resource committee and they said sweet are the case of adversity and i love the committees i am on. They are incredibly relevant to the topic tonight and what is important to me. Science, space and Technology Committee is unfortunate and i know we are on cspan i want to add unlimited attacks but its widely known as the anti Science Committee. We have a chairman who doesnt believe that Climate Change is real or that its manmade or if it is there is nothing we can do about it. Our Climate Change hearings tend to be dominated by Climate Change deniers who prefer to call themselves skeptics and we hear about the measurements are wrong in the wa world is cooling and were predicting of ice age back in the 1970s and if we got rid of the fossil fuels it would it make a difference. Its a difficult committee to work on because of that. Im also on the National Resource committee which is different but its once again dominated by people who dont believe that Climate Change is real. The existential issue on that is the use of public lands and it basically is the one perspective is that all federal lands should be given back to the state to get as much gas and oil and minerals out as they possibly can. One of the big four recently, and in the lobby is a huge poster that shows the city of norfolk, virginia, and the looks at, its a graph and the graph is storm surges in norfolk, how often the city is submerged. Goes back from 1930 through today. You see the surges are higher every year and more frequent every year that what starts of