WASHINGTON, DC—Representative Eliot L. Engel, the leading Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and senior member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, today made the following statement on the agreement between President Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to limit carbon emissions. The two countries are the world’s largest energy consumers and together account for about 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

“I applaud President Obama for securing this historic deal with President Xi Jinping. It signals the joint commitment of the United States and China to a low-carbon future. I encourage all major economies to follow suit and put forth ambitious climate commitments of their own.

“For years, some have said it doesn’t make sense to reduce our emissions here at home when other big polluters around the world wouldn’t do the same. Times have changed. Now our actions must change, too.

“To meet our emission-reduction targets in the United States, we all need to be in this together. We need to encourage our innovators to help us hit those targets. We need to sustain the transition to a clean-energy economy. And we all need to accept the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is real and that it is man-made.

“One way or the other, clean energy development will create countless jobs and drive economic growth around the world for years to come. The United States must choose whether to be a part of this future. At this pivotal moment, we cannot afford to fall behind.”

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