Kerry on Paris Agreement: Even If Every Country Fulfilled Its Promises the Temperature of This Planet Will Still Rise
Envoy tells nations to prepare to "rachet" ambitions come November in Glasgow
The US climate envoy attempted to rouse the ambitions of the world community Wednesday, such that the nations of the world will be ready to “rachet” their goals later this year for taming global climate change.
John Kerry, the Biden administration's special envoy for climate, delivered stirring remarks Tuesday in London to outline where both the United States and the global community stands in the fight against a changing climate.
The former US secretary of state and US senator particularly called attention to the conference scheduled for Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
Under the terms of the previously agreed-to Paris Agreement, the Glasgow meeting will be the first time nation's will have to boost — or “rachet” — their goals to curb carbon since the Paris Agreement was set in 2015. (Nations were to boost their goals at their 2020 gathering, but that event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.)
“Because the fundamental truth of the Paris Agreement is that even if every country fulfilled its initial promises –and many are falling short — even if everyone did what they said they would do in Paris, the temperature of this planet would still rise by upwards of 2.5 or 3 degrees centigrade,” Kerry said. “We’re already seeing dramatic consequences with 1.2 degrees. Imagine the doubling. To contemplate doubling that is to invite catastrophe.”
Capping global climate change — generated by emitting carbon emissions created by the burning of fossil fuels into the atmosphere — at no more than 1.5 degrees centigrade is critical for the future of life on Earth, Kerry said.
“Since the years since Paris, the scientific community has now determined that even the agreement’s ‘well below 2 degrees’ is not enough to stave off climate chaos,” he said. “A seminal 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, made clear that we must focus on capping warming as close as we can get to 1.5 degrees, if not 1.5. Much more warming than that, and life on our planet will become increasingly unrecognizable.
The United States this year rejoined the Paris Agreement after former president Donald Trump withdrew the country from the plan.
“After our absence for four years, my friends, we approach this challenge with humility, but – let me be clear – we approach it with ambition,” Kerry said. “We know that we cannot redeem the past or retrieve four lost years – which in Churchill’s phrase could be described as ‘years the locusts have eaten.’
“But now, a new American president is boldly moving to make up for lost time, and this is an important demarcation moment to assess where we all stand with the time that we have left to get the job done,” he added.
Moreover, the Biden administration is backing up its rhetoric with action, Kerry said, noting President Biden's ambition to install some 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations nationwide as part of his sweeping infrastructure initiative.
The United States, however, cannot tackle global climate change alone, Kerry said, adding that all nations must mobilize in crisis proportions.
“That is precisely what we must do now: treat the climate crisis as the crisis it has become, and mount a response that is comparable to wartime mobilization, a massive opportunity to rebuild our economies after COVID-19, to ‘Build Better.’ How many times have you heard that phrase after this pandemic?” Kerry said. “That’s the mission everywhere that we are engaged in – for these last six months, and I promise you in these next 100 days.
“I want to be very clear about this because there are countries that express concern about what they’re asked to do. The fact is that we are not saying that every country must, will, or can do the same thing – they can’t – but we are saying that every country can do enough and can do what is appropriate within its ability to help us keep on track to win this battle,” he added. “Not because it’s one region, or one country against another, or competition, because we are literally all in this together.”
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