California Senate Reaffirms Commitment to Park Climate Agreement

SACRAMENTO – The California State Senate today passed Senator Dave Cortese’s Senate Resolution 36 (SR 36), formally affirming California’s commitment to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, despite federal withdrawal. 

“California will not back down from climate leadership, even as the federal government retreats,” said Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose). “Through SR 36, the state will continue to participate in our international climate responsibilities, regardless of what happens in Washington. Our ultimate goal is not just to slow climate change, but to reverse it.”

Jonathan Cole of Climate Action California says “Politics can’t change the physics of climate. As long as greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere continue to climb, the long-term average temperature of the Earth will continue to increase. The recent federal withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will not change this basic fact. By reaffirming California’s Commitment to the Paris Agreement, SR 36 sends the U.S. and the world a clear message that California remains committed to the international climate effort and will continue to be a global climate leader.”

The Paris Agreement, adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, is the first universal, legally binding international treaty on climate change. Signed on April 22, 2016, the Agreement commits nearly every nation to limiting global temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with an ambition to keep it below 1.5°C. On January 20, 2025, the United States formally announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement by executive order, directing the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to notify the Secretary-General and revoke all commitments under the accord.

SR 36 reaffirms California’s commitment to the Paris Agreement and aligns the state’s policy direction with a long-term vision of restoring the atmosphere to safe, pre-industrial levels of greenhouse gas concentrations. The resolution underscores California’s leadership in climate adaptation, clean energy, and sustainable job creation as well as declaring climate restoration, net-zero, and net-negative carbon emissions as core policy priorities for the state.

SR 36 builds upon Senator Cortese’s SR 34 (2023), which the Senate passed last legislative session as California’s first resolution to formally recognize climate restoration as a state priority, which requires restoring CO2 concentrations back to safe levels that have historically supported human survival.

Senator Cortese has long championed both local and global climate action. In 2019, while serving as a Santa Clara County Supervisor, he led the adoption of the nation’s first Climate Restoration Emergency Resolution and spoke at the inaugural Climate Restoration Forum at the United Nations. He also partnered with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project to launch the County Climate Coalition and created the Silicon Valley Kids Climate Club to educate young people on climate solutions, a program that is now housed at The Tech Interactive Museum in San Jose.

In addition to SR 36, Senator Cortese has introduced several key environmental bills in 2025, all of which have cleared every policy committee in the Senate:

  • SB 429 – Establishes the nation’s first publicly available wildfire risk model to help local governments and residents better plan for and mitigate wildfire danger
  • SB 653 – Promotes environmentally sensitive vegetation management practices that protect both public safety and ecological health
  • SB 30 – Prevents the redeployment of decommissioned diesel trains in California, protecting air quality and accelerating the transition to cleaner transportation

Senator Dave Cortese represents Senate District 15, which encompasses San Jose and much of Santa Clara County in the heart of Silicon Valley. Visit Senator Cortese’s website: https://sd15.senate.ca.gov

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