US climate envoy John Kerry has told the BBC a UN climate summit in the UK this November is “the last best chance” to avert the worst environmental consequences for the world.
He said years were lost on the climate issue under President Donald Trump, “who didn’t believe in any of it”.
Mr. John Kerry addressed as President Biden signed off on a flood of executive orders intended to be addressed at the climate change conference which is scheduled to be held in Glasgow Scotland. It is said that many world leaders will be present at the COP26.
Included in his latest announcements is a freeze on recent oil and gas leases on public property which would enhance off-shore wind produced energy by the year 2030.
Mr Biden – who re-entered the US into the 2016 Paris climate accord in one of his first acts as president – said America must lead the response to the crisis.
The newly appointed leader said “”Glasgow will be extremely important.
“In fact, I would say that in my judgment, it is the last best chance the world has to come together in order to do the things we need to do to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.
“Three years ago, we were told we have 12 years to avoid those consequences. Three of those years were lost because we had Donald Trump, who didn’t believe in any of it. And now we have nine years left to try to do what science is telling us we need to do.”
But at a White House news conference on Wednesday, Mr Kerry acknowledged the crisis would not be fixed even if the US reduced its emissions to zero.
He said: “He [Mr Biden] knows Paris alone is not enough. Not when almost 90% of all of the planet’s global emissions come from outside of US borders.
“We could go to zero tomorrow and the problem isn’t solved.”
During Trumps tenure in office, he moved back environmental regulations and sought to maximize the county’s fossil fuel production.
Trump took credit as the person responsible for the US attaining a level self-sufficiency in energy and becoming a net petroleum exporter.
Mr. Donald Trump described the climate change as being a hoax and withdrew from the Paris Pact. He further claimed that by doing so, it has now left India and China who are the two top polluting countries to bales to use fossil fuels with freely.
The aim of the accord is to maintain the rise of the global temperatures this century clearly below 2C above pre-industrial levels. Almost over 200 countries signed the accord.
Joh Kerry served as the Secretary of State in the Obama administration and was contributory in navigating the momentous Paris climate agreement. It was practically the first time that all the nations of world were in agreement that the debate on climate change needs to be addressed. Given Mr. Kerry’s experience, Joe Biden’s is not just appointing Kerry as his Climate Envoy, but he is also the senior most politician in the US, and a person who is extremely interested in making the progression of international climate diplomacy be successful.
Mr.Kerry is fully aware that the absence of the US from climate discussions during the Trump Administration means that he would have to embrace a tactful approach n with other world leaders. Kerry sees the Glasgow COP26 to be held in November as a decisive forum for the world to group as one in an effort to avoid being harmful to climate change.
It is no doubt that this senior politician will politically operate very astutely his intent of exercising his remarkable negotiation skills to ensure that the world gets together to sign off on the most impressive deal in Glasgow, in November 2021.This being said, the US is yet to earn the proper right to demand from other nations to take action.
It is reported that President Biden will not wait for November’s Summit to take part in multilateral discussion on the climate issue. A US summit of leaders is scheduled for April on Earth Day.
“Just like we need a unified national response to Covid-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis because there is a climate crisis,” he said, establishing a White House office of domestic climate policy.
Mr Biden directed the Department of the Interior to pause oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands and water and to launch a review of existing energy leases.
Mr Biden aims to conserve at least 30% of federal lands and oceans by 2030.
The new president – whose fellow Democrats control Congress – has signed over three dozen executive orders in his first week in office, more than any of his predecessors.
ritics note he told ABC News while campaigning last October that only a “dictator” would use executive orders excessively. “We’re a democracy,” said Mr Biden. “We need consensus.”
One of Biden’s executive orders included halting of construction of the Keystone XL pipeline which would carry oil from Canada through the US. President Biden was subject to a serious criticism for this.
His White House is trying to get ahead of more criticism by addressing job creation.
Mr Biden argued that “millions” of Americans would be able to find employment “modernising our water systems, transportation, our energy infrastructure – to withstand the impacts of extreme climate”.
