Sounding the alarm, Kerry urges new ways of climate finance

Kerry, who is stepping down as the US climate change envoy, said the agreement reached at the last UN summit in Dubai in December called for the planet to wean itself off fossil fuels, the main cause of rising global temperatures. He said it was historic.

But he warned that the COP28 agreement must not be “reduced to mere words on a piece of paper”.

“If we don't do what we say we're going to do in the coming months, that's exactly what could happen, fostering cynicism and dropoutism and causing great disappointment around the world,” Kerry told the Council on Foreign Relations. “It will be.” relationship.

Kerry, 80, a former secretary of state, senator and presidential candidate, said he would focus outside government on mobilizing private finance to complement the government's efforts on climate change.

Kelly said the U.S. should consider a financial guarantee system for investors that covers risks if projects fail.

“It's time to get creative. We've always invented new financial products when we needed them, and my judgment is that we need them now,” he said.

He spoke about the so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a financing deal between a small number of rich countries and emerging economies to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and take other climate action measures. He pointed out his work as a special envoy to Indonesia and Vietnam regarding.

Mr. Kelly called these deals “very bespoke” and said, “We don't have the time to do that.”

“We need to help them put more money into this deal with confidence that it's viable and that we've adequately de-risked it,” he said.

A recent study by the Climate Policy Initiative found that credit guarantees have the potential to mobilize six to 25 times more capital than traditional loans, especially as developing countries seek to reduce uncertainty. are doing.

Mr Kerry also called on the world to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. Countries dependent on oil and gas are often politically sensitive.

“I don’t understand why in the name of God we are subsidizing the people who are causing the problem,” he said.

He praised the European Union's new “CBAM” carbon tariffs, but acknowledged that they are politically unfeasible in the United States.

President Joe Biden, in a sharp departure from his likely opponent in the November election, his predecessor Donald Trump, has focused on green technology as part of his signature legislative achievement, the Inflation Control Act. has overseen billions of dollars in investments.

Trump has questioned the science behind climate change and withdrew from the Paris climate accord, which Kerry helped negotiate as top diplomat under President Barack Obama.

Kerry credited the Dubai deal in part to cooperation between the United States and China, the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases and frequent adversaries on the world stage.

Mr. Kerry had an unusually warm relationship with China's Xie Zhenhua, who once brought his grandson to Dubai to meet with American negotiators.

Kerry hinted that there was also internal resistance within the Biden team, saying, “You know, we really need to work with China at a time when the rhetoric in Washington and most countries has gotten tougher. “I had to convince some people in the administration,” he said. The current seems to be going against that idea. ”

But Biden said he agreed that “this is not and should not be an ideological battle” on climate change.

“We don't have time to debate climate issues,” Kerry said.

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