Washington, Oct. 14 (BNA) US climate envoy John Kerry softens expectations for a UN climate summit that is sometimes described as surprising the Earth’s future, and next month’s talks are likely to end with non-target countries still achieving their goals. Reducing the coal and oil emissions needed to fend off the increasingly destructive levels of global warming.
But in an interview with The Associated Press, Kerry also praised the efforts of the United States, the European Union, Japan and other allies ahead of next month’s climate negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, with the world bringing the world closer to a large and fast-growing fossil fuel. Discounts are required. He hoped that a sufficient number of countries would join in the next two years. “By the time Glasgow is over,” he said, “we will know who is doing their fair share and who is not.”
Kerry also spoke of the impact if the US Congress – under a slim Democratic majority – fails to pass legislation for significant climate action by the US itself, as the Biden administration aims to restore leadership on climate action. “It would be like President Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement again,” Kerry said.
Kerry’s comments came after nine months of intense climate diplomacy by plane, phone and computer screen aimed at outlining most of the global commitments for climate action ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit, which opens on October 31 in Scotland.
He is planning final stops in Mexico and Saudi Arabia, where he expects new last-minute climate pledges ahead of the summit, before settling in Glasgow for two weeks of talks.
Kerry’s efforts abroad, along with President Joe Biden’s multibillion-dollar promises of legislation and support for clean energy at home, come after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
Kerry dismissed a suggestion that he was seeking to lower expectations about the summit, which has become a deadline — but not a deadline, leaders are beginning to stress — for states to announce how hard they are working to shift their economies from pollution to cleaner burning. Kerry and others early on described the Glasgow summit as the “last and best chance” to galvanize momentum to cut emissions, invest in renewable energy, and help less affluent countries allow them to transition from burning coal and oil. In time to reduce the temperature rise to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius).
The world has already warmed nearly two degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since countries set the target in Paris in 2015. Scientists warn that the damage is irreversible and heading to catastrophic levels in the absence of significant emissions cuts.
When it comes to bridging the gap between the cuts that countries have promised and the cuts that are needed, “we hope to get very close to that … although there will be a gap and … we have to be honest about the gap, and we have to use the gap as additional motivation to continue accelerating as quickly as possible.” What can,” Kerry said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, he emphasized that the money flowing into developing cleaner technology such as battery storage would spur progress that would make it easier for underdeveloped countries to catch up.
A senior UN official briefing reporters separately on Wednesday also spoke less excitingly than international leaders have often said about Glasgow’s expected accomplishments.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, the official left the door open because some work to reach the international target of cutting emissions by 45% by 2030 may not be done by the end of the Glasgow climate negotiations.
The official emphasized that the Paris Agreement allows countries to make stronger commitments at any time.
RAE