At the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: United States Secretary Kerry delivers message of hope

By Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya in Marrakech

The United States Secretary of States, John Kerry has made a welcoming statement tat the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which is being held here in Marrakech from the 7th on to the 18th of Number 2016. With a new president who had criticized the reality of Climate Change, the United States is one of the big nations that are contributing greatly to the emission in the world who had also signed to the newly adopted Paris Agreement.

While he was delivering a statement, Secretary Kerry said promised not to revere the already signed agreement. “I can tell you with confidence that the United States is right now, today, on our way to meeting all of the international targets that we’ve set, and because of the market decisions that are being made, I do not believe that that can or will be reversed” he said.

Kerry who said he is not “a Cassandra” also said that he is “a realist” and pointed the fact that time is not “on our side” to act on the interest of world. He noted that “the world is already changing at an increasingly alarming rate with increasingly alarming consequences”.

Secretary Kerry believes they “have not come to Marrakesh to bask in the glow of Paris” but have “come here to move forward”. In doing so he said, “we cannot forget that the contributions we’ve each made thus far were never meant to be the ceiling. They’re a foundation on which we expect to build. And unless our nations voluntarily ratchet up our ambition, and unless we continue to put sustained pressure on one another to act wisely, we will have difficulty meeting the current mitigation needs, let alone holding temperature increases at 2 degrees warming, which science tells us is a tipping point”.

He said if nations fail, “it will be the single greatest instance in modern history of a generation in a time of crisis abdicating responsibility for the future. And it won’t just be a policy failure; because of the nature of this challenge, it will be a moral failure, a betrayal of devastating consequence”.

Speaking on the Paris agreement, Kerry believes that “people all over the world are working for victory in this. And this issue is increasingly capturing the attention of citizens everywhere, and certainly the private sector”. It is not just going to be the work of governments alone. But “it’s going to be innovators, workers, and business leaders, many of whom have been hammering away at this challenge for years who are going to continue to create the technological advances that forever revolutionize the way that we power our world he said.

According to Kerry, one of the strongest signals that government can send and “one of the most powerful ways to reduce emissions at the lowest possible course – cost – is to move toward carbon pricing that puts basic, free-market economics to work in addressing this challenge”. He emphasized that “we also have to include the price tag of rebuilding after devastating storms and flooding” especially when in the first three quarters of this year alone, extreme weather events have cost the United States and the taxpayers $27 billion in damage with Louisiana alone in August experiencing flooding that resulted in roughly $10 billion worth of damage. In recent times, storms that used to happen once every 500 years are becoming relatively normal. An average of 22.5 million people have been displaced by extreme weather events annually.

The renewable energy boom has seen emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil invested even more in renewable technologies last year than the developed world. Kerry reechoed that “China alone invested more than 100 billion dollars” on renewable and that “clean energy is expected to be a multi-trillion dollar market – the largest market the world has ever known”.

He maintained that “no nation will do well if it sits on the sidelines, handicapping its new businesses from reaping the benefits of the clean-tech explosion” and he informed Party signatories that “we are in the midst of a global renewable energy surge, and as a result, in many places, clean energy has already reached cost parity with fossil fuels. Millions around the world are currently employed by the renewable energy industry. And if we make the right choices, millions more people will be put to work”.

Mentioning about the ice breaks, Secretary Kerry said “every day, 86 million metric tons of ice makes its way down into the ocean” and “the total flow that comes off that glacier in a single year is enough water to meet the needs of New York City for two decades”.

He ended up with a call reminding nations that “Every nation has a responsibility to do its part if we are going to pass that test” and he believes that “only those nations who step up and respond to this threat can legitimately lay claim to a mantle of global leadership”.