A concurrent resolution recognizing a health and safety emergency disproportionately affecting the fundamental rights of children due to the Trump administration's directives that unleash fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, while suppressing climate change science.
SCR18 is a concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the Trump administration’s energy and climate directives have created a health and safety emergency for children. The resolution argues that federal actions promoting fossil fuel extraction, limiting renewable energy and electric vehicles, and suppressing climate science worsen climate change, increase greenhouse gas emissions, and expose children to greater risks from heat, wildfire smoke, air pollution, flooding, disease, and related mental health harms. It frames these effects as threats to children’s constitutional rights, including life, liberty, property, and a stable climate system necessary for their well-being.
The resolution also calls for a different federal approach to climate and energy policy. It urges Congress and the executive branch to comply with existing statutory mandates, reverse policies that expand fossil fuels and weaken environmental protections, restore the EPA to its core mission, and republish climate science resources and data on federal websites. It further states that future energy and climate laws, regulations, and executive actions should protect children’s rights and place the United States on a path toward reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to below 350 parts per million by 2100.
As a concurrent resolution, SCR18 does not itself change statutory law or create enforceable legal requirements. Its practical effect would be to formally state Congress’s position on federal climate and energy policy, including opposition to executive actions that expand fossil fuel production, restrict clean energy, or suppress climate science. It also seeks to influence future policymaking by articulating a rights-based framework for evaluating climate and energy decisions, with particular emphasis on children and future generations.
The bill’s tone is strongly supportive of climate action and strongly critical of the Trump administration’s energy and environmental policies. The resolution presents the issue as an urgent public health and constitutional rights concern, especially for children, and calls for immediate reversal of federal actions that it says worsen climate harms. No opposing votes or committee debate are provided in the record, and the measure was simply referred to committee, so the available context shows advocacy-oriented support from the sponsors rather than documented bipartisan sentiment.
The central point of contention is the resolution’s assertion that federal efforts to expand fossil fuel production and limit renewable energy are unlawful, harmful, and inconsistent with children’s rights. It also disputes the existence of a national energy emergency and criticizes the suppression of climate science data and funding. Likely areas of disagreement include the characterization of climate policy as a constitutional rights issue, the claim that executive actions exceed presidential authority, and the resolution’s call for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. The bill is sponsored by multiple Democratic senators and was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, with no recorded votes or committee amendments in the provided materials.