U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told a group of attendees Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that they were part of a ‘select group of human beings’ brought together by an ‘extra-terrestrial’ force to save the plan.
The climate czar opened by thanking Børge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum in Geneva for getting him the ‘best room I ever had here in 35 years.’
Kerry then launched into a diatribe warning attendees that ‘time is running out’ to avoid climate change‘s ‘worst consequences.’
‘When you stop and think about it, it’s pretty extraordinary that we select group of human beings because of whatever touched us at some point in our lives, are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet,’ Kerry mused.
‘When you stop and think about it, it’s pretty extraordinary that we select group of human beings because of whatever touched us at some point in our lives, are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet,’ climate envoy John Kerry said
‘It’s so… almost extra-terrestrial to think about, “saving the planet.” If you say that to most people most people, they think you’re just a crazy tree hugging and lefty liberal, you know, do-gooder, whatever.’
Kerry — who delivered the speech during a WEF session titled Philanthropy: A Catalyst for Protecting Our Planet — decried that ‘allegedly wise adult human beings’ still ignored the science, mathematics and physics of climate change.
‘I’m convinced we will get to a low-carbon, no-carbon economy — we’re going to get there because we have to,’ he said.
‘I am not convinced we’re going to get there in time to do what the scientists said, which is avoid the worst consequences of the crisis,’ he added.
‘And those worst consequences are going to affect millions of people all around the world, [in] Africa and other places. Of the 20 most affected countries in the world from [the] climate crisis, 17 are in Africa.’
Kerry spoke about the goal of keeping climate warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.
As to how to get there, he said: ‘the lesson I’ve learned in the last years and I learned it as secretary [of State] and I’ve learned it since, reinforced in spades, is: money, money, money, money, money, money, money. And I’m sorry to say that.’
Kerry said governments would need to ramp up their investments as would philanthropists to keep the cimate from warming 1.5 C
Kerry said governments would need to ramp up their investments as would philanthropists.
Funding in clean energy would need to more than triple its current levels by 2030 to around $4 trillion, according to the International Energy Agency.
The 1.5 degree goal originated in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement that aims to ‘limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.’
‘You look at what’s happening with species, half the species of the planet been already killed,’ Kerry added.
Kerry also complained that companies often publicly commit to a path towards zero emissions but don’t disclose how they plan to get there.
‘Let’s face it, [a] whole bunch of companies in the world have chosen to say, ‘I’m going to be net zero by 2050′,’ he said.
‘And you and I, we know they don’t have a clue how they’re going to get there. And most of them are not on track to get there.’
Republicans have mocked Kerry for criss-crossing the globe on emissions-heavy planes while trying to underscore a sense of urgency about the climate.
Over around 15 months, Kerry flew more than 180,000 miles on flights that emitted more than 9.5 million pounds of carbon, roughly 300 times an American’s average annual carbon footprint, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.
Kerry’s office now says he flies commercially or on military aircraft after he was pummeled for using his wealthy wife Teresa Heinz Kerry’s private jet to accept a climate award in Iceland in 2019.