(Newsglobal.com)- John Kerry, who serves as President Joe Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, said there’s only one way that the world can adequately tackle climate change: It needs money, and lots of it.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, Kerry said that eventually, the world will achieve an economy that’s low-carbon. However, he said that it might already be too late for the planet to avoid climate change’s worst effects.
Kerry shared those thoughts in Davos, Switzerland, as part of the multi-day WEF. In doing so, he opined that there could be dark times ahead if something drastic isn’t done soon. He said:
“I’m convinced we will get to a low-carbon, no-carbon economy. We’re going to get there because we have to. I’m 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.
“And those worst consequences are going to affect millions of people all around the world, [in] African and other places. Of the 20 most affected countries in the world from [the] climate crisis, 17 are in Africa.”
Multiple times during his speech, Kerry said that the plan needs to be to keep the goal of limiting overall global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. To do that, though, he said that the world is going to need to make quite the immense amount of investment in different programs.
He put it bluntly when he said:
“So, how do we get there? Well, the lesson I’ve learned in the last years, and I learned it as Secretary [of State] and I’ve it since, reinforced in spades, is: money, money, money, money, money, money, money. And, I’m sorry to say that.”
Kerry’s solution to reversing the effects of global warming — or at least to stave off any further serious consequences — is to throw money at the problem.
The goal of keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius is actually within the Paris Agreement from 2015. Kerry said that agreement aims to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”
One of the crucial marks in doing that is reducing carbon dioxide emissions produced by humans to what’s called “net zero” by the year 2050. Many corporations across the world have pledged to do just that, though it’s uncertain whether they’ll actually be able to live up to those pledges — or whether it’ll even be enough if they do.
As Kerry pointed out, just reaching those goals is going to take them overcoming enormous hurdles in terms of both logistics and finances. As he said:
“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. 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.”
