Kerry vows aggressive climate steps as US rejoins Paris accord
Any changes will come on top of Biden’s $2T climate proposal
WASHINGTON — Presidential climate envoy John Kerry vowed Friday that the U.S. would take aggressive steps to reduce its carbon emissions as the nation officially rejoins the Paris climate accord.
Under the agreement, some 195 countries set their own voluntary targets to reduce emissions. The goal is to prevent average global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the pact four years ago. But President Joe Biden, on his first day in office last month, notified the United Nations that the U.S. would rejoin. That became official Friday.
“We know that just doing Paris is not enough,” Kerry said Friday at a virtual event hosted by groups urging action against climate change. Kerry helped broker the landmark Paris climate accord as secretary of state under then-President Barack Obama and is now U.S. special presidential envoy for climate.
“If every country delivered, we’d still see a warming of planet Earth of about 3.7 degrees centigrade,” Kerry said. “Just catastrophic.”
Under Obama, the U.S. had pledged to curb greenhouse gas emissions by between 26% and 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. But Kerry and other members of the Biden administration have signaled they intend to go well beyond that as they seek to reestablish their climate credibility with world leaders after four years of environmental rollbacks during the Trump administration.
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s domestic climate adviser, has pledged “the most aggressive” carbon cut the U.S. can make ahead of an April 22 climate summit Biden is hosting with world leaders. The U.S. is expected to announce its next emissions reduction goal, or Nationally Determined Contribution, at or ahead of that meeting.
The event was hosted by America is All In, a coalition of groups urging action against climate change that is co-chaired by Michael R. Bloomberg, the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy for climate ambition and solutions. Bloomberg is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, parent company of Bloomberg News.
The World Resources Institute and other environmental groups have advocated a U.S. commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 50% over the next decade. That would require a mix of domestic climate action, including more zero-emission vehicles and rapid shifts in how the U.S. generates its electricity.
Some activists are pushing even more rapid reductions before 2030. The U.S. Climate Action Network has advocated the U.S. cut its “fair share” of emissions by paring them 70% below 2005 levels by 2030, while helping developing countries stifle greenhouse gases, too.
Whatever the U.S. pledges comes on top of a sweeping $2 trillion climate plan proposed by Biden that calls for an emissions-free electric grid in 15 years and a target of net-zero emissions across the entire economy by 2050.