Kerry warns nations run out of time to decarbonize and challenges China to move away from coal

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“I have no doubt that richer nations will end up in a zero carbon or net (zero) carbon economy,” Kerry said. “But I am not at all convinced that we will get there in time to avoid profoundly disruptive fundamental transformations in the nature of our planet and the ability of tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people to survive.”

Kerry made his remarks, which the organizers of the event said were recorded last week, practically at a U.S.-Japan Council event alongside Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.

Kerry spent Tuesday in Japan, where he met with Koizumi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to discuss Japan’s plan to transition to a zero economy by 2050 and reduce its emissions by 46% by 2030 ( in relation to 2013 levels). Japan announced the 2030 target in April, following pressure from the US and other countries. Biden had announced in April that the United States would reduce emissions by 50-52% from 2005 levels by the end of the decade.
Kerry’s Asian talks are a key piece of his ongoing climate diplomacy ahead of the crucial November United Nations climate conference in Glasgow. The most critical piece of the Glasgow talks will try to get the nations of the world to be able to limit emissions, so the planet sees 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. The world is around 1.1 degrees Celsius and a recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that reaching 2 degrees Celsius or more would mean catastrophic climate consequences.

Stressing the severity of the climate crisis and the fact that there are still more countries that have to make bolder climate commitments, Kerry said that even if the two United States and Japan were carbon neutral for “tomorrow, we still have a huge problem. ” He noted that the United States and Japan are part of a group of countries that have pledged to keep the climate neutral by 2050, making sharp cuts in the next decade.

“Fifty-five percent of global GDP is committed to pathways that could keep 1.5 degrees alive,” Kerry said, referring to the 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. “The problem is that we have the other 45% not there yet. China, India, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil … must accompany us in the effort to use the Glasgow meeting to adopt a plan for the next ten years “.

Main contributions of the UN report on the climate crisis
Kerry and his team will be in China from Wednesday to Friday, where they will face a more daunting challenge. China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and accounts for 27% of global emissions in 2019 (the United States ranks second with 11% of global emissions). China has said it will reach zero net emissions by 2060 and aims to reach its maximum emissions by 2030.
Kerry will meet with Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua to continue talks, with the aim of getting China to phase out coal use and pledge to stop building coal-fired power plants abroad.

“China must move its maximum timeline well before 2030, ideally for 2025, to ensure the world a chance to fight for 1.5 ° C,” Greenpeace climate analyst Li Shuo told CNN in China. “This requires more action now.”

Speaking to the Council of the United States and Japan, Kerry said China can decarbonize more quickly and that the country’s massive investment in renewable energy shows it can move away from coal.

“China’s top-level leadership must take steps that are fully feasible,” Kerry said. “We are not asking China to do something impossible. Something is difficult, but it is not out of reach. China has been putting large amounts of coal online in recent years.”

Biden’s climate envoy also said the US must meet its commitments and spoke of the need for the US to improve its infrastructure and invest heavily in renewable energy, which he described as a “giant component” of the climate solution. .

Kerry nodded to a bipartisan infrastructure bill that is among the president’s top priorities, which would improve the U.S. power grid. This week, Hurricane Ida severely damaged part of Louisiana and Mississippi’s power grid, leaving more than a million homes and businesses without electricity.

“In America, we have individual grids: one on the east coast, one on the west coast, and one in Texas alone,” Kerry said. “But there’s a big hole open in the center of our country where we, the nation that went to the moon, invented the Internet, has created vaccines, we can’t send a single electron from California to New York. That’s stupid. It’s a madness “.

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