Climate change

Climate change: US climate envoy slams countries that don’t embrace science

New Delhi, February 17 (IANS): Stating that only 20 countries on the planet account for 80% of all emissions, US Presidential Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that unfortunately not all countries are adopting science-based plans to limit the rise in temperature.

“Unfortunately, some of these countries have not yet adopted plans to do what science tells us to do, which is necessary to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius and reduce our emissions by 45% over this next eight-year period,” he added. said during the 21st edition of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSDS) which is being held virtually on Wednesday.

Saying the climate crisis is the greatest security challenge facing the world, Kerry called for a “monumental transformation” in how “we deal with the concept of sustainability”.

“Given the rate of population growth on the planet, the current level of resource use is rapacious and not at all suited to the perspective of sustainability,” he said during the ministerial session on “Ambition and action in the critical decade to address climate change and achieve sustainable development”.

Welcoming the ambitious targets of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030 set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Glasgow (where the annual climate change summit was held in November 2021), Kerry said: “The need for Achieving this goal was very simple. This is the only way that India itself will comply with the 1.5 degree target, which we all ratified recently in Glasgow.”

The session, which was moderated by former TERI Ambassador and Emeritus Member Manjeev Singh Puri, was also addressed by environment ministers from Canada, Norway, Germany, Finland, France and Spain.

Before moving on to the next speaker, Puri, said he would leave for him (Kerry) two thoughts in terms of global action. “The most important thing is what you want to do in the United States. You may not understand the huge impact that would have on the model. The best practices you would do, for example, electrification of transport or the use of green energy or the fact that coal would be reduced, each one matters and then for all of us (remaining countries) they become comfort zones to turn to,” he said.

“In Glasgow, which announced India’s huge commitment to renewable energy, also talked about LIFE, which is Lifestyle for Environment. We are counting on you again, as leaders, Europeans, Americans, Canadians, and of course everyone who uses, in terms of Lifestyle, if you can get away from the lavish consumption, I’m sure there’s a lot of action in the area of ​​production anyway .”