Climate envoy Kerry: No rolling back clean energy transition

SAPPORO, Japan (AP) — So much has been invested in clean energy that there can be no rolling back of moves to end carbon emissions, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Sunday.

Kerry remarked that the community can reduce average global warming to 1.7 levels Celsius( 2. 7 degrees Fahrenheit ), which is better than the worst-case scenario but still above the current limits of 1.5 Hundred general warming above pre-industrial levels, if nations keep their promises to phase out polluting fossil fuels.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Kerry said,” We’re’re in a very different place than where we were one years ago, let alone two and three years ago.”

After attending a meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations’ energy and environment ministers, he said,” But we’re’re not doing everything we said we would.” ” Many nations, including ours, must act quickly to reduce pollution, implement renewable energy sources, and make new technologies available online.

Kerry claimed that the G-7 negotiations in Sapporo, northern Japan, were” really creative” in producing a demonstration of unification for phasing out the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels.

Another chance to commit resources to the objective of achieving zero emissions by 2050 presents itself at a meeting of President Joe Biden’s’s Major Economies Forum on Thursday, which includes leaders of 20 countries that account for more than three-quarters of global carbon emissions, according to Kerry.

He stated that” the United States and the entire developed world have a duty to assist the developing world in overcoming this crisis.” ” What happens will actually depend on those nations.” We did increase our chances of winning this fight if they reduce, take the initiative, begin implementing new technologies, and stop using unrelenting fossil fuels.

Despite disagreements over Taiwan, individual rights, solutions, and other matters, Kerry expressed wish for cooperation with China on environmental issues and claimed to have had a” really good conversation” with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, even years earlier.

” We decided that in order to hasten the process, we should get back together physically, meet, and try to find something to work on up.” Can you do that? I certainly hope now, Kerry said.

The Biden administration has moved aggressively to entice companies to invest in electric vehicles and other cleaner energy technologies. While the U.S. still lags some other countries in use of EVs, the market is changing as consumer preferences evolve and manufacturers invest billions.

According to Kerry,” private companies have made significant bets on the future and they’re’re not going to reverse them ,” so no one person can undo what’s’s happening in the climate sector.

Even though developed countries were close to their$ 100 billion goal in annual support for developing nations, Kerry said that one area where much more needs to be done is in climate financing. $ 83 billion was committed in 2020.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s’s monthly meetings in Washington last year got things going, but they weren’t enough. In our opinion, they didn’t bring about much of a change to truly destroy the required financial support.

Our wish, he said, is that over the course of the ensuing weeks and months, more will be discussed, agreed upon, and we can move more quickly.

In order to encourage such international development banks to bring more money and at better rates, the goal is to reform the financial structure.

There is a lot of money and it is looking for these offers right now, Kerry said, noting that” anyone is going to appear pretty thoroughly at what’s’s coming to develop with their money.”

The Inflation Reduction Act, which” sends a message to the market place that there is money to be made by transitioning and moving in the direction of clean power systems ,” is” a great step toward incentivizing climate-friendly projects.”

Because” there’s’s no such thing as clean coal ,” Kerry said, money will not be invested in new coal-fired power plants in the United States. The market is not in favor of that. People are not in favor of that.

Some nations, including Japan, have objected to establishing a precise timetable for the phase-out of coal-fired plants, citing energy security. Kerry added,” I think energy security is being exaggerated in some cases, but it’s’s a valid concern for some countries.”

Given the millions of people who pass away each year as a result of dirty air, extreme heat, and some terrible effects of climate change, the greater essential is to do everything in our power to reduce carbon pollution.

” If we’re’re going to be responsible, we need to go back and consider how we can stop the emissions more quickly. We must reduce the emissions that are warming the world and pushing us irreversibly toward a number of tipping things beyond which there is no turning back, according to Kerry.