Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari addressed the United States' absence from this year's United Nations climate summit during remarks outside the U.S. Capitol this week, explaining that climate change is a rising challenge facing the nation.
Ansari called the U.S. absence from the COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil, "a disgrace," noting that other countries have sent representatives while the United States has no federal presence.
"I have dedicated my life to climate change and solving and addressing the climate crisis ever since then, because it truly is the defining issue of our time," Ansari said. "It is a jobs issue. It is an economic issue. It is a moral issue, and it is a national security issue for our country."
Additionally, Ansari noted that the U.S. military identified climate change as a national security concern decades ago.
"It was actually the United States military operating decades ago, the U.S. Navy, that drew attention to climate change as a threat multiplier," she said, referencing issues linked to environmental conditions.
Arizona's Fight
She highlighted specific challenges in Arizona, including extreme heat, air quality concerns, and water security issues.
The state has responded by creating the nation's first publicly funded office of heat response and mitigation and by developing what Ansari described as "one of the most ambitious fleet transition plans in the United States," including the purchase of electric buses.
Ansari then criticized Republican energy policy approaches, stating: "Republicans want to talk a big game about bringing costs down and diversity of energy portfolio. Yet every single hearing, all they want to do is talk about expanding oil and gas, expanding offshore drilling, and completely scraping any sort of clean energy."
On X, she added: "The climate crisis is an economic issue, a jobs issue, and a national security issue, no matter how loudly Donald Trump denies it."
"We will come back stronger than ever," Ansari concluded.
