Kerry: Climate change battle must continue
Outgoing Secretary of State John F. Kerry is counting on the Obama administration’s progress in addressing climate change to continue locally and at the state level, regardless of the tack taken by President-elect Donald Trump, he told a room of MIT students in one of his final addresses as the nation’s top diplomat.
Kerry, speaking yesterday as Mayor Martin J. Walsh listened from the front row of a packed conference room overlooking the Charles River and Back Bay skyline, pointed to efforts Boston and other cities have made in combating what he described as one of the world’s greatest challenges.
They’re key, he said, as the White House is readied for Trump. The New York billionaire has described climate change as a “hoax” and has railed against the 2015 Paris climate accords Kerry and President Obama have championed.
“I know a lot of people are worried what’s going to happen with the administration and so forth,” Kerry said during his 45-minute speech at the Cambridge university. “The fact is, mayors all across the country are engaged in their own efforts, as are governors. And I’m confident about the ability of those things to go forward.”
Kerry’s remarks, which were billed as an address on climate change and the “global transition to a clean energy future,” came 11 days before Trump is set to be sworn in.
“I’m not going to speculate about the politics that our president-elect and Secretary of State will choose to pursue,” Kerry said in one of the few direct references to Trump and his pick to replace Kerry, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who is slated to go before the Senate tomorrow in a hotly anticipated confirmation hearing.