Targeting Environmental and Climate Recklessness Act of 2025
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Markey (for himself and Ms. Warren) introduced the following …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Targeting Environmental and Climate Recklessness Act of 2025 creates a new sanctions framework to punish foreign individuals and companies who significantly contribute to climate change or environmental destruction. It allows the US President to freeze assets, ban travel, and impose financial penalties on foreign actors engaged in building polluting power plants, illegal deforestation, greenwashing, or violence against environmental activists.
Who Benefits and How
Environmental advocacy organizations and indigenous communities benefit from increased protection, as the bill specifically targets those who threaten or harm environmental defenders. Renewable energy companies in foreign markets may gain competitive advantage as fossil fuel competitors face sanctions risk. NGOs that monitor environmental violations could see increased funding and influence as their reports become grounds for sanctions. The Office of Foreign Assets Control receives additional funding to enforce these sanctions.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Foreign coal and fossil fuel companies building low-efficiency power plants face the risk of US sanctions, asset freezes, and visa bans. Foreign logging, mining, and ranching operations involved in illegal deforestation could have their US assets blocked. Foreign government officials who approve environmentally harmful projects risk personal sanctions. US financial institutions must increase compliance monitoring for transactions involving potentially sanctioned foreign persons. American taxpayers fund the expanded OFAC enforcement activities.
Key Provisions
- Authorizes the President to sanction foreign persons causing greenhouse gas emissions inconsistent with the 1.5 degrees Celsius climate target
- Targets illegal deforestation activities including logging, mining, and ranching that destroy forests
- Penalizes "greenwashing" - misrepresenting the environmental impact of projects or products
- Protects environmental defenders by sanctioning those who threaten or harm climate activists
- Provides additional funding to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for enforcement
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Creates a sanctions framework to target foreign persons who engage in activities that significantly exacerbate climate change, cause deforestation, or harm environmental defenders
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Use targeted economic sanctions as a tool to combat climate change by penalizing foreign actors who engage in high-emissions activities, deforestation, or violence against environmental defenders"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Environmental advocacy organizations
- Indigenous communities affected by deforestation
- Climate change researchers and activists
- Environmental defenders facing threats
Likely Burden Bearers
- Foreign fossil fuel companies building low-efficiency power plants
- Foreign logging and mining companies involved in illegal deforestation
- Foreign ranchers engaged in illegal land clearing
- Foreign government officials approving environmentally harmful projects
- Office of Foreign Assets Control (increased workload)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "ofac"
- → Office of Foreign Assets Control
- "the_president"
- → President of the United States
- "the_secretary_of_state"
- → Secretary of State
- "the_secretary_of_the_treasury"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A feature or process that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases
The conversion of forest to other land use that results in permanent reduction of tree canopy to less than 10 percent and conversion to agriculture, pasture, water reservoirs, mining, or urban areas
A person has actual knowledge of the facts, or a reasonable person acting in the circumstances and exercising reasonable care would have that knowledge
A person that is not a United States person
A person displays a deliberate indifference or conscious disregard to the consequences of the conduct
A United States citizen or lawful permanent resident, or an entity organized under US laws including foreign branches
A person has knowledge of the facts and that the conduct was subject to sanctions under this section
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology