Biden places climate back on front burner
WASHINGTON: Failed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has flagged his ambitions as Joe Biden’s global warming chief, calling for the UN conference in Glasgow next year to raise global ambitions on environmental protection and warning the Paris accord that he helped secure was insufficient.
Mr Biden formally introduced Mr Kerry in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, as part of his team of veteran diplomats and policymakers, saying: “America is back, ready to lead the world.”
Mr Kerry told his new boss:
“I will do all in my power to live up to your expectations, and to this moment for our country and for the world.”
He praised Mr Biden for pledging to rejoin the Paris climate accord of 2015, which outgoing President Donald Trump scrapped for unfairly giving China greater permission to pollute.
“You’re right to rejoin Paris on day one, and you’re right to recognise that Paris alone is not enough,” Mr Kerry said.
“At the global meeting in Glasgow one year from now, all nations must embrace ambition together.”
Mr Kerry, who brokered the Obama administration’s controversial Iran nuclear deal, which Mr Trump also scrapped, said: “Mr presidentelect, you have put forward a bold, transformative climate plan … and you have also underscored that no country alone can solve this challenge. Even the United States, for all of our industrial strength, is responsible for (only) 13 per cent of global emissions.”
Negotiated by Mr Kerry when he was Barack Obama’s secretary of state, the Paris climate agreement committed all nations to limit warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels and encouraged them to try to go down as low as 1.5C.
Scientists warn that the world is far behind in reaching the 2C goal — a level at which the planet will suffer major negative effects but not the most catastrophic consequences of climate change, such as widespread drought and submerged coastal areas.
The Un-led conference in Glasgow had been due to take place this month but was pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also means that the US will be represented by a more climate-friendly administration.
Mr Biden said that after he is inaugurated on January 20, the US will “once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies”.