Five Key Moments from #COP21 in Paris
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris, France, for the 21st UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP21). This week, Secretary Kerry participated in numerous events surrounding COP21 where he underscored the importance of ambitious, global action to address climate change and its devastating impacts around the world.
A Call For Strong Action on Climate Change
“This Conference of the Parties may be the best chance we have to correct the course of our planet; to chart a new sustainable path; and to prevent the most devastating consequences of climate change from ever happening.”
-Secretary Kerry’s remarks on “COP21 and Beyond Paris” at the COP21 Climate Change Conference, December 9, 2015
On the Importance of Protecting Our Ocean
“We can’t live without [the Ocean]. That’s one reason why it’s important to protect it. It has an impact on climate. It’s fundamental. The ocean currents are fundamental. And now we’re beginning to hear from scientists that as the ocean warms from global climate change, the currents may in fact change directions. And the impact of that could be absolutely unfathomable with respect to agriculture, food production, rivers, life itself — so the interconnectedness of something we all really need to recognize.”
— Secretary Kerry’s remarks at the UN Foundation Breakfast on Oceans, December 8, 2015
On an Ambitious, Durable, and Transparent Agreement
“Success is getting an ambitious agreement that is durable, that has transparency and accountability on the methodologies people are employing to meet their INDCs. It will require a five-year review so that whatever technologies enter the marketplace we can all take advantage of and so that we can measure what we’re doing. I mean, it doesn’t do any good to come to Paris, have a great big meeting, run out of here, say that there are a lot of goals, if they’re not being implemented and you’re not moving down the road. So the key is — in my judgment, one of the most important things in this entire agreement is knowing that — knowing where we’re going and knowing that people are actually moving concertedly, uniformly to try to get there. That’s the key.”
— Secretary Kerry’s remarks at UN Foundation/Mashable’s “Earth to Paris Event,” December 7, 2015
On the Role of Innovation and Clean Energy in Combatting Climate Change
“Unleashing investment, encouraging innovation, fostering development, and the spread of new technologies is precisely how we are going to get where we need to be in order to win the fight against climate change. I don’t believe that governments are going to wind up making the fundamental decision that in fact changes the world to this low-carbon economy. We’re going to set our stage, we can create frameworks, we can lower costs, we can make decisions; but in the end, it’s you. It’s businesses and the choices that you make and the kinds of buildings that you build, the investments that you make, the products you create, the sustainability of your products from start to finish that will make the difference.
The fact is that shrinking our carbon footprint makes very good business sense, which is why a lot of you are here. And thankfully, more and more business leaders are coming to that conclusion. Obviously, the private sector has a critical role to play, not only in the design of your companies and what you make, but also in pressuring global leaders, in your corporate citizenship, impressing on people to reach the kind of deal that we need to reach this week and surpass the targets that we set when we leave here.”
-Secretary Kerry’s remarks at the Caring for Climate Business Forum, December 8, 2015
On the Greatest Economic Opportunity the World Has Ever Known
“This is the most extraordinary market opportunity in the history of humankind. The market of the 1990s which created the greatest wealth our nation has seen since the days of no tax and the Rockefellers, Carnegies, et cetera, Mellons, we created the greatest wealth in the 1990s in America — and we shared it, by the way, with everybody. Every quintile of American society went up.
But this is a bigger market. That was a $1 trillion market with 1 billion users. This is already a 4 to 5 billion user market and valued at multiple trillions of dollars, and we’re going to spend at least 17 trillion in the next ten years on new energy projects, et cetera. So that’s why AT&T and Microsoft and Apple and Google and Walmart and GE and a whole bunch of companies have signed on to the President’s business initiative. And they’re already making pledges to make sure that their products are produced without a huge chain of deforestation, with a virtuous fuel cycle, with sustainable practices and outcomes. And that’s going to be the difference that young people growing up now, all of whom are in touch with each other 24/7 around the world, are not going to stand for the hypocrisy and they’re not going to stand for the delay. They’re going to demand products and goods and options that are sustainable, and we owe it to them. That’s why this is what is so important in Paris.”
-Secretary Kerry’s remarks at the New York Times Energy for Tomorrow Event, December 9, 2015
Read more in our newest Medium publication — U.S Voice On Climate: COP21 and Beyond.
