"If you're not ready to acknowledge science and to recognize the reality of what is happening around the planet with greater intensity — storms, many more floods, torrential rainfall, greater intensity to tornados and winds with greater frequency — the damage that is being done by the climate crisis is now costing us already in the billions," Kerry explains. "And it's going to cost much more if we don't move now."
So in Dubai, just a few weeks ago, 195 nations agreed that we must transition away from fossil fuels. And that we need to do so in according with the science, which means trying to keep 1.5-degree limit on warming and reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and accelerating right now.
So my job in these next weeks is to help in the transition, but to make certain that we are moving full speed and doing as much as we can to excite the business community to step up and help be leading this transition. We can't do this without major corporations around the world stepping up. And I'm glad to say that here in Davos, but previously in Dubai, we had about hundreds of the top corporations of the world, biggest companies in the world, step up and agree to help lead in this effort to transition.
So we have a lot of work to do. It's exciting work. It's actually the biggest economic opportunity the world has known since the Industrial Revolution. Massive transformation of how we heat our homes, how we drive vehicles or what kind of vehicles we drive. What fuels we use. How we're going to have efficiencies built into our buildings and our homes where we save money. And you actually have cheaper electricity. So there's really a plus side on the other side of this journey. And that's what we want people to understand.
- Yeah with the CEOs Julie and I have been able to talk with Mr. Secretary, they're focused on AI. They're focused on the outcome, whatever it might be with the election. When you talk to these CEOs, where does climate fall on that priority list?
JOHN KERRY: As a very high priority but not necessarily the number 1 or 2 in many of their cases. I mean, a lot of these guys are fighting for market share. They're in steep competition with other countries. They're concerned about cost of capital, about inflation, about all those kinds of things, obviously.
But they're also parents or grandparents. And they are deeply concerned about the future of this planet. And they know because they've joined up with our efforts. That we need to reduce these emissions. There's only one cause of this climate crisis. It is the unmitigated. The burning of fossil fuel that does not capture the emissions.
And so we have major initiatives now that people are engaging in to try to build out the technology to be able to capture, maybe do something with CO2, carbon dioxide. But we also have methane, which is being released from the Earth by the permafrost thawing, which is happening because of the warming of the planet, and that methane is 80 to 100 times more destructive than CO2. And it's 20 times more destructive in the longer term.
So look, if you're not ready to acknowledge science and to recognize the reality of what is happening around the planet with greater intensity to storms, many more floods, torrential rainfall, greater intensity to tornadoes and winds with greater frequency, the damage that is being done by the climate crisis is now costing us already in the billions.
And it's going to cost much more if we don't move now. So I think these CEOs understand that. I mean, we have Apple and Microsoft and Google, Salesforce, FedEx, Boeing, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, all these kinds of companies' CEOs have made the decision that they're going to move into this low carbon, no carbon clean economy. And that's the only way we avoid the worst consequences of the crisis.
- Secretary Kerry, all of these companies have made these pledges. What about the other largest polluter in the world? Of course, China your counterpart there is also stepping down. What's your level of confidence that momentum will continue with China and in cooperation with China on this issue?
JOHN KERRY: Well, I can't express that in terms of my confidence or lack of confidence. We have to do all the things we promised to do all of us. And we now have greater transparency and accountability in the system to know whether people are keeping their promises or not. We have satellite technology that now has the ability to track methane, track CO2, determine the footprint of any big corporation in the world.
So people are not going to be able to hide inaction or not enough action. We will have accountability. Now, China has brought a massive amount of coal plants online. And frankly, it's been one of the areas of discussion between us. But China is also manufacturing and deploying more renewables than all the rest of the world put together.
So we have to see how this unfolds. We agreed to work with China in a transparent, constructive way, accountable. We're not giving up anything in doing that. But it's a way for us to make certain that we are all in this together because no one country can solve this problem alone. We have to all be at the table and doing it.
And that includes China, which is the largest emitter in the world. We're the second largest emitter. We're the largest economy. They're the second largest economy. So that's why China and the United States have been sitting down to try to figure out where are the areas we may be able to cooperate together in the interests of the whole planet and of citizens everywhere.
- Four years into the presidency of Joe Biden, what is the state of our relationship with China?
JOHN KERRY: Obviously, there are very real issues between us, which we have fundamental differences on. [COUGH] Excuse me. And President Biden and President Xi sat down recently in meetings in California in San Francisco. I was privileged to be part of the large discussion that we had.
And both leaders were very clear about the interests that they are duty-bound to protect. And we needed to understand from President Xi, and they needed to understand from President Biden. I think President Biden made it crystal clear where the differences are that we need to work on.
And there are big issues. Access to the marketplace, theft of intellectual property, the questions of what's going to happen to nuclear weapons-- both with China as well as with Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Hong Kong, Taiwan. I mean, there are a lot of these issues. But President Biden and President Xi decided early on in President Biden's administration that we were going to work to try to keep the climate issue separate.
Because it's not a bilateral issue, it's a multilateral, global issue where all of us are involved and every one of US needs the rest of the big polluters, big emitters in the world to come to the table and be part of the solution. President Biden has been leading in that effort, holding a summit. Three virtual summits now in the last three years in which he has brought the largest emitters in the world to the table and raised the ambition of each and every one of those countries to be able to address this issue faster.
So I think his leadership has been critical. The passage of the IRA in the United States is creating an amazing amount of jobs at home. It's the strongest environmental legislation in the world. There are other countries that wish they had it. And the result of it is that we're creating jobs on new technologies, which is going to lower the cost of energy for Americans.
Example, solar has come down 83% in price, distinctively cheaper than fossil fuel energy. And in fact, last year solar alone had a greater amount of investment than fossil fuels did. So we're seeing the transformation really beginning to take hold now. And my sense is that China and the United States need to work together in order to make sure we meet our goals.
- Mr. Secretary, one of the reasons you're reportedly stepping down is so that you can help campaign to re-elect Joe Biden as president. What do you see as your role? What specifically will you be doing for him?
JOHN KERRY: Well, as a federal employee, I live under something called the Hatch Act, where you're not supposed to engage in politics-- in elected politics, partisan politics. And so what I will really do is regain my own voice by not being a federal employee. And I will campaign for President Biden because I think the stakes are so high, not just in our country and for our country, but for the world.
And I'm not going to go into the why of that and describe it now while I'm in my transition but at some point, I'll make very clear what I think is at stake in the race and why I want to be engaged in that discussion.
- Sir, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.
JOHN KERRY: Great to be with you. Thanks so much.
- Thank you.
JOHN KERRY: Thank you.