The US has marked its return to the Paris agreement by urging countries to do more to confront the climate crisis, with America\u2019s climate envoy,\u00a0John Kerry, warning that international talks this year are the \u201clast, best hope\u201d of avoiding catastrophic global heating.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the US officially returned to the Paris climate accord, 107 days after it left at the behest of former president Donald Trump. Joe Biden\u00a0moved to reverse this on his first day in office\u00a0and Kerry conceded that the US is returning \u201cwith a lot of humility, for the agony of the last four years\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a significant day, a day that never had to happen,\u201d Kerry said to Al Gore, the former US vice-president,\u00a0in a conversation filmed\u00a0on the eve of the re-entry. \u201cIt\u2019s so sad that our previous president without any scientific basis or any legitimate economic rationale decided to pull America out. It hurt us and it hurt the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrition of the Biden administration is, however, balanced by a desire to resume the mantle of leadership at a time when\u00a0almost every country is struggling\u00a0to undertake the swift emissions cuts required to avert disastrous global heating of 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, as outlined in the Paris deal.<\/p>\n
Kerry said that none of the world\u2019s major emitters, including China, India and the EU, are doing enough and that key UN climate talks later this year in Glasgow, Scotland, provide the \u201clast, best hope we have\u201d to get the world on track to avoid runaway climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe meeting in Glasgow rises in its importance,\u201d said Kerry, a former US secretary of state. \u201cWe are at this most critical moment where we have the capacity to define the decade of the 20s which will make or break us to get to net zero carbon in 2050.\u201d Kerry said that countries will have to \u201cdefine in real terms their roadmap for the next 10 years, the next 30 years. We are talking about a reality we haven\u2019t been able to assemble in these meetings so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerry said that coal use needs to be phased out far more quickly, coupled with a rapid escalation of electric vehicles and renewable energy, and that he hoped to \u201cbuild some new coalitions and approach this in a new way\u201d. The US climate envoy said he had reached out to the pro-fossil fuel leaderships in Brazil and Australia, which have \u201chad some differences with us, we\u2019ve not been able to get on the same page completely\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last four years there were a lot of times when a lot of us thought the failure of this enterprise may rest on one word: Trump,\u201d Kerry said in an event on Friday to mark the Paris re-entry. \u201cBut the international climate regime is still standing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While emissions worldwide from factories, airplanes and cars dipped sharply last year due to pandemic-related lockdowns, there are already\u00a0signs of a roaring comeback\u00a0that risks blowing past the agreed temperature limits and unleash worsening heatwaves, flooding, storms and societal unrest. The narrowing window of time to avoid climate breakdown means there is only brief cheering over the return of the US, the world\u2019s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to have the US back in the Paris agreement, but sadly we have no time to celebrate,\u201d said Laurence Tubiana, France\u2019s climate change ambassador and a key architect of the Paris agreement. \u201cThe climate crisis is deepening and this is the year we need all major polluters to step up and deliver stronger plans to deliver a safe, clean and prosperous future for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US will release a new emissions cut pledge ahead of a 22 April summit convened by Biden with other major emitting countries and Tubiana said this goal should be \u201cat least\u201d a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030, from 2005 levels. The US, under Barack Obama, promised a 26% cut by 2025 and got about halfway to this target before the Covid-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n
A coalition of nearly 200 environmental and humanitarian groups\u00a0have urged\u00a0the Biden administration to move well beyond the largely symbolic act of rejoining the Paris agreement by contributing billions of dollars to help defend poorer countries vulnerable to climate impacts and \u201clead with actions rather than just words\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe climate crisis is a race against time, and the US is just reaching the starting line after years of inaction,\u201d said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cAs the world\u2019s largest historical polluter, the United States must take its fair share of robust climate action on both the domestic and global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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