November 20, 2025
Ms. Escobar introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, Financial Services, Oversight and Government Reform, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To authorize the imposition of sanctions with respect to significant actions that exacerbate climate change, to reinforce comprehensive efforts to limit global average temperature rise, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Targeting Environmental and Climate Recklessness Act of 2025
.
Sec. 2. Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
(1)
Climate change is imposing significant damage on communities in the United States and abroad in the form of severe weather events, wildfires, heat waves, droughts, flooding, ocean acidification, and other threats to public health and safety. Scientists expect those effects to grow in frequency and intensity in the coming decades, jeopardizing the jobs, health, and safety of the people of the United States.
(2)
Collectively, the international community needs to limit global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. In 2024, average temperatures passed the 1.5-degree threshold for the first time. With sustained 1.5-degree warming, scientists expect the United States to experience a sharp rise in annual heat-related deaths, longer and more destructive wildfire seasons, more frequent and severe droughts, reduced crop yields, more multibillion-dollar flood disasters, increased high-tide flooding in coastal areas, more days with unhealthy air quality, and longer tick and mosquito seasons, among other effects. Low-income communities and communities of color will experience the worst effects.
(3)
The adverse impacts of climate change will increase exponentially as warming continues. Under the current trajectory, the world will experience warming that exceeds 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. At 3 degrees of warming, scientists expect dangerous conditions in the United States where outdoor work is unsafe for many months of the year, farmers struggle to keep livestock and grow crops, power grids become overloaded, water becomes scarce during summer months, poor air quality leads to widespread health problems, severe wildfires and droughts become more common, major flooding events occur on a regular basis, mosquito- and tick-borne illnesses spread further, and some coastal areas become submerged.
(4)
Climate change is also expected to pose a significant challenge to the international community’s shared vision of fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
(5)
To avert catastrophe, the United States and every country on Earth will need to make drastic reforms to global economic systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce deforestation, and adapt to unavoidable changes in the climate.
(6)
Internationally, economic actors continue to pursue activities, such as development of new coal-fired power plants and deforestation, that contribute to dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of carbon sinks. In addition to carrying a significant climate risk, many of those activities are associated with serious human rights abuses, acts of corruption, and environmental injustice against Indigenous communities, communities of color, and other communities that have historically faced marginalization and discrimination.
(7)
Illegal deforestation is a significant driver of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Criminal networks with the capacity to coordinate large-scale extraction, processing, and sale of timber deploy armed personnel to protect their interests. Those criminal networks regularly attack and threaten members of Indigenous communities, other environmental defenders, and enforcement officials. Perpetrators of such violence are rarely brought to justice. Numerous studies show that transnational criminal organizations no longer limit themselves only to drug trafficking but diversify their operations to include natural resource crimes, among other activities.
(8)
The goals articulated in the Paris Agreement depend on collective action involving the entire international community. Progress made by one economic actor can be reduced or cancelled out if another economic actor emits significant greenhouse gas emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere or destroys important carbon sinks.
(9)
In 2025, President Donald J. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement and attacked climate change-related activities across the Federal Government.
(10)
President Trump's decision to ignore climate change has provided the People's Republic of China with a strategic opportunity to make significant competitive gains in preparing for a new economic order in a world that has warmed by 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
(11)
During the first year of President Trump's second term, the United States experienced one of its costliest years on record for wildfires and storms, record-breaking heat waves, and severe flooding—all disasters that were linked to climate change.
(12)
The United States Government has developed and implements targeted measures to restrict access to the United States financial system for specific individuals and entities whose actions threaten or run counter to United States national interests. While the United States has not yet used such measures for climate-related activities alone, the United States Government has deployed such measures in response to terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, transnational organized crime, narcotics trafficking, malicious cyber-enabled activity, wildlife trafficking, serious human rights abuses, and acts of corruption.
(13)
The United States should take action to address the urgency of the climate crisis and hold actors responsible for environmental and climate harm.
Sec. 3. Sense of Congress on a comprehensive approach to addressing climate change
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1)
the targeted measures described in this Act are only one component of the comprehensive approach needed to address climate change and mitigate its effects;
(2)
the United States Government must ensure through law and regulation that entities in the United States are not engaged in or complicit in any of the egregious behaviors for which foreign persons may be targeted under this Act;
(3)
the United States Government should continue to make progress toward scaling international climate finance to more than $11,000,000,000 annually and promote international efforts to support climate change adaptation and mitigation;
(4)
the United States Government must work proactively with foreign governments, including by offering positive incentives, to address climate change and to promote economic development in ways that do not needlessly increase carbon emissions, deforestation, or the risk of corruption;
(5)
the targeted measures described in this Act should be employed if engagement has failed to prevent significant actions that exacerbate climate change and deforestation; and
(6)
given broad international support for countering climate change, the Secretary of State should encourage the governments of other countries to implement targeted measures that are similar to the provisions of this Act, and the Secretary of the Treasury should support implementation of such measures, in order to increase the effectiveness of actions taken by the United States to combat significant actions that exacerbate climate change, including related corruption and human rights violations.
Sec. 4. Statement of policy on application of Global Magnitsky sanctions to environment-linked corruption and human rights abuses
(a) In general
It is the policy of the United States to consider use of applicable authorities described in Executive Order 13818 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking the property of persons involved in serious human rights abuse or corruption) in relation to activities described in section 5(b), including for acts of corruption and serious human rights abuses against individuals described in subsection (b).
(b) Individuals described
An individual described in this subsection is an individual who—
(1)
advocates for the protection of the environment, public health, Indigenous rights, or community land rights;
(2)
investigates, exposes, or raises awareness of harm or corruption related to natural resource use; or
(3)
is obliged to leave the individual’s habitual home due, in whole or in part, to sudden or progressive change in the environment—
(A)
caused by human activities or attributable to climate change; and
(B)
that adversely affects the individual’s life or living conditions.
Sec. 5. Imposition of sanctions with respect to significant actions that exacerbate climate change, deforestation, or harm to environmental defenders
(a) Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that the President should employ the authorities provided by this section to prioritize action against, and deterrence of, egregious behaviors that—
(1)
undermine efforts to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels;
(2)
contribute to deforestation; or
(3)
present specific harm to environmental defenders.
(b) In general
The President may impose one or more of the sanctions described in subsection (c) with respect to any foreign person the President determines, based on credible information—
(1)
knowingly, recklessly, or willfully engages in an activity in a foreign country that causes, or is likely to cause, greenhouse gas emissions that are not in line with scientifically established pathways to help avoid a sustained increase in the Earth’s temperature of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as determined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including any action that significantly undermines, as a result of timing, magnitude, or corruption, projects for the adoption in the country of high-efficiency, low-carbon, or renewable energy technology or infrastructure, including the construction of low-efficiency fossil fuel power plants;
(2)
engages in an activity in a foreign country that causes, or is likely to cause, illegal deforestation or loss of natural carbon sinks, including—
(A)
establishment of incentives for, or promotion of, knowingly conducting deforestation; or
(B)
engagement in, or failure to combat, illegal logging, mining, or ranching;
(3)
knowingly engages in an activity in a foreign country that misrepresents the environmental impact of a project, investment, or product, including misrepresenting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project, investment, or product, in the context of—
(A)
assessments conducted by multilateral organizations, national governments, or investors; or
(B)
public efforts to gain market advantage based on purported environmental advantages of a product;
(4)
engages in an activity in a foreign country that causes, or is likely to cause, limitations on or circumvention of opposition to deforestation or projects described in paragraph (1) by individuals seeking to protect the environment, public health, or community land rights, including actions that encourage impunity for those perpetrating physical threats or violence against such individuals;
(5)
is otherwise responsible for or complicit in an activity described in any of paragraphs (1) through (4), including a government official who approves or implements policies or acts that serve to promote such an activity;
(6)
has acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any foreign person in a matter relating to an activity described in any of paragraphs (1) through (4), including for or on behalf of a government official described in paragraph (5);
(7)
has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, an activity described in any of paragraphs (1) through (4); or
(8)
is owned or controlled by a foreign person that engages an activity described in any of paragraphs (1) through (4) or is described in paragraph (5).
(c) Sanctions described
The sanctions that may be imposed with respect to a foreign person under subsection (b) are the following:
(1) Inadmissibility to united states
In the case of a foreign person who is an individual—
(A)
ineligibility to receive a visa to travel to the United States or to be admitted to the United States; or
(B)
if the individual has been issued a visa or other documentation, revocation, in accordance with section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i)), of the visa or other documentation.
(2) Blocking of property
(A) In general
The blocking, in accordance with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), of all transactions in all property and interests in property of the foreign person if such property and interests in property are in the United States, come within the United States, or are or come within the possession or control of a United States person.
(B) Inapplicability of national emergency requirement
The requirements of section 202 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701) shall not apply for purposes of this paragraph.
(3) Other sanctions options
Any of the sanctions described in section 235 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (22 U.S.C. 9529).
(d) Consideration of certain information in imposing sanctions
In determining whether to impose sanctions under subsection (b), the President shall consider—
(1)
information provided jointly by the chairperson and ranking member of each of the appropriate congressional committees; and
(2)
credible information obtained by other countries and nongovernmental organizations that monitor environmental harm or violations of human rights.
(e) Exceptions
(1) Intelligence and law enforcement activities
Sanctions under this section shall not apply with respect to—
(A)
any activity subject to the reporting requirements under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.); or
(B)
any authorized intelligence or law enforcement activities of the United States.
(2) Compliance with united nations headquarters agreement
This section shall not apply with respect to the admission of an individual to the United States if the admission of the individual is necessary to comply with United States obligations under the Agreement between the United Nations and the United States of America regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into force November 21, 1947, under the Convention on Consular Relations, done at Vienna April 24, 1963, and entered into force March 19, 1967, or under other international obligations of the United States.
(3) Exception relating to importation of goods
(A) In general
The authority to block and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests in property under this section shall not include the authority to impose sanctions on the importation of goods.
(B) Good defined
In this paragraph, the term good means any article, natural or man-made substance, material, supply or manufactured product, including inspection and test equipment, and excluding technical data.
(f) Implementation; penalties
(1) Implementation
The President may exercise all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out this section.
(2) Penalties
A person that violates, attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a violation of this section or any regulation, license, or order issued to carry out this section shall be subject to the penalties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a person that commits an unlawful act described in subsection (a) of that section.
(g) Definitions
In this section:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees
The term appropriate congressional committees means—
(A)
the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
(B)
the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives.
(2) Carbon sink
The term carbon sink means a feature or process that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases.
(3) Deforestation
The term deforestation means the conversion of forest to other land use, whether human-induced or not, that results in—
(A)
permanent reduction of the tree canopy to less than a minimum 10 percent threshold; and
(B)
the conversion of areas of forest to agriculture, pasture, water reservoirs, mining, or urban areas.
(4) Knowingly
The term knowingly, with respect to conduct, means—
(A)
a person has actual knowledge of the facts; or
(B)
a reasonable person acting in the circumstances and exercising reasonable care would have that knowledge.
(5) Foreign person
The term foreign person means a person that is not a United States person.
(6) Recklessly
The term recklessly, with respect to conduct, means that a person displays a deliberate indifference or conscious disregard to the consequences of the conduct.
(7) United states person
The term United States person means—
(A)
a United States citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence to the United States; or
(B)
an entity organized under the laws of the United States or of any jurisdiction within the United States, including a foreign branch of such an entity.
(8) Willfully
The term willfully, with respect to conduct, means a person has knowledge—
(A)
of the facts; and
(B)
that the conduct was subject to sanctions under this section.
Sec. 6. Additional resources for the Office of Foreign Assets Control
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of the Treasury such sums as may be necessary to support the targeting by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of persons under this Act and to enhance the ability of that Office to target persons for the imposition of sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.).