John Kerry on the Biden Administration’s Climate Goals

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: How do you — obviously, you have so many links from being secretary of state and all your previous roles? How do you plan to tell them that now you’re serious and that, in four years time, you won’t see another walk-back?

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Well, nobody’s going to accept us just telling people we’re serious. We’re going to have to show people we’re serious. And President Biden understands — president-elect Biden understands that. He’s laid out a very ambitious program, with $2 trillion worth of infrastructure building in America, building 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles, transforming school buses into electric vehicles, setting new standards for automobiles, for buildings themselves. He’s going to put us ahead on the Kigali agreement, which will itself, by itself, reducing hydrofluorocarbons, it will actually reduce the rise of temperature by about half-a-degree Centigrade. There are all kinds of things that president-elect Biden is committed to doing. And by raising the position of climate envoy, by creating it, and making me a member of the National Security Council, he’s saying clearly to the world, we understand this is a security issue for the planet, and we’re going to do our share. Now, in fairness, Christiane — and this is very important — while Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement, the fact is that 38 states of our 50 in America all passed renewable portfolio laws, and were living up to them; 1,000-plus mayors in America all have committed their cities to continue to work towards Paris. The day after Trump pulled out, I stood up at a press conference in New York with Governor Cuomo, with Governor Inslee of Washington and Governor Jerry Brown of California, and we all joined together in announcing a movement called We’re Still In. We stayed in. So, the fact is that a lot of America, representing 80 percent of the population of our nation, has continued to try to live by the Paris agreement. So, we may be derelict in the actions — not maybe — we are. Clearly, what Donald Trump did was irresponsible, was without any basis, in fact or science. And he wasn’t honest with the American people — surprise, surprise — when he told us why he was doing it. No burden is placed on any nation. People willingly accepted what each of us have to do. The problem is, no nation accepted to do what the crisis demands. That, I think, is the issue square in our face in Glasgow. We have to do everything we possibly can do. And then we have to be honest about where the gap is and drive innovation and research and development in order to do the things necessary to get there. This is not an exercise in politics are fun. This is the most serious challenges we have ever faced, all of us together on the planet.