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Kerry criticized Donald Trump for “three wasted years” on climate change.
The United States officially joined the Paris climate agreement on Friday, 30 days after President Joe Biden signed the mechanism to enter into the landmark deal.
As climate advocates applauded the move, Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate change John Kerry sounded the alarm on the need for urgent and ambitious action.
Kerry attacked former President Donald Trump, accusing his administration of being “inexcusably absent for four years”.
“A lot of us thought the failure of this venture could rest on a word. The word was Trump,” he told members of America Is All In, a coalition of states, cities Friday morning. , private companies and other groups led by Mike Bloomberg to keep the United States on track to meet its climate goals in Paris.
The US withdrawal lasted just over 100 days. While Trump announced he would quit the non-binding agreement in June 2017, that withdrawal was not effective until November 4, 2020, a day after the US presidential election. But his administration dismantled several environmental protections during his tenure, including protections for clean water and air and fuel efficiency standards.
At the Munich security conference on Friday, Kerry lamented that the world “is not close to where we need to be” in part because the United States is not in the lead.
“Three years later, three years lost,” he said. “Towards 2030 is the date when we must put the world on the right track in order to cap global warming at this level of 1.5 [degrees Celsius]. So we are absolutely, clearly, without a doubt in the decisive decade … it’s what people are going to do in the next 10 years that matters. “
The warnings come as world leaders urge the Biden administration to implement an ambitious program to reduce U.S. emissions, which compromise about 13% of the global total.
Kerry has not announced any new steps as the administration continues to review its climate policies. But the former secretary of state and presidential candidate highlighted Biden’s plan for an Earth Day leaders’ climate summit, as well as COP26, the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, in Scotland, in November.
Put bluntly, he told conference attendees that climate change is a “threat multiplier” that is already causing massive displacement and migration, conflict and humanitarian crises.
“When tensions are already high somewhere and resources are increasingly scarce, the embers of conflict burn even more,” he said. “And when farmers can no longer make a living because the weather is so extreme and unpredictable, they become more and more desperate. Many, according to some studies, hundreds of millions, will be forced out of their homes … if this is not handled well, it can literally start to undermine countries, homes, peace and stability. “
In fact, Kerry linked the crisis in Texas to climate change, saying, “This week in the state of Texas we saw unprecedented extreme climate related cold because the polar vortex is moving further south due to the weakening of the jet stream linked to warming. “
This link between climate change and cold weather is not definitive, but scientists say climate change can make both hot and cold seasons more extreme.
Not all countries will be invited to the Biden Earth Day summit, Kerry confirmed, but it will include many developing countries like Bangladesh and Pacific states like Palau that are already facing the climate crisis in such a way. tangible. The world’s 17 major economies and the largest emitting countries must take note of “the plight of the people who fall victim to it,” Kerry said.
He added: “It’s just not possible to pretend right now. Failure really isn’t an option if we expect to pass Earth in the form it needs to be to future generations. “
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