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Remarks at the Keynote Session of B20 2021 Inception Meeting – News

Posted on by Audrey Rainey

John
Kerry,
Special
Presidential
Envoy
for
Climate

Open
Public
Session
of
B20
2021
Inception
Meeting


As
prepared

Giuseppe
–
thank
you
for
that
generous
introduction
–
and
thanks
to
all
of
you for inviting me
to share some
thoughts
with
you
about
the
challenge
ahead
on
the
global
climate
crisis.

Here
in
Washington,
it’s
7:30
in
the
morning
on
my
first
full
day as
Presidential
Climate
Envoy in President Biden
Administration.
The
early
hour is
appropriate,
because
we
really
don’t
have
a
minute
to
waste,
and
there
really
are
no
more
important
and
no
more
empowered
audiences
than
the
private
sector
as
we
all
map
the
road
ahead.

We
began
down
that
road
back
to
progress
yesterday
when
President
Biden
rejoined
the
Paris
Climate
Accord,
commissioned
a
team
of
climate
leaders
throughout
his
government
with
expertise
and
vision,
and
with
a
few
strokes
of
his
pen
began
to
restore
domestic
environmental
leadership.

But
going
forward, I
believe
it
is
important
for
the
United
States,
and
for
countries
and
companies
all
over
the
world,
to travel
down
that
road
with
humility,
and
ambition.

Humility
because
we
know
that
the
federal
government
of
the
United
States,
until
yesterday,
walked
away
from
the
table
for
four
wasted
years
when
we
could’ve
been
helping
to
meet
the
challenge.

Humility
also
in
knowing
that for
all
our industrial capacity,
the
United
States is
responsible
for
only
15%
of
global
emissions.
The whole world
must
come
to
this
table
to
solve
this
problem.

And
humility
in
knowing
that
today
no
country
and
no
continent
is
getting
the
job
done.

At
the COP in
November,
all
nations
must
raise
ambition
together
–
or
we
will
all
fail,
together.

Failure
is
not
an
option.

And
that’s
why
ambition
is
so
important.

Success
means
tapping
into
the
best
of our
collective ingenuity,
creativity,
and
diplomacy,
from
brain
power
to
alternative
energy
power,
using
every
tool
we
have
to
get
where
we
need
to
go. Success
means
lifting
up
communities
long
left
behind
and
creating
an
equitable
recovery.

The
road
ahead
is
exciting.
It
means
creating
millions
of
middle-class
jobs.
It
means
less
pollution
in
our
air
and
in
our
ocean.
It
means
making
life
healthier
for
citizens
across
the
world.
And
it
means
we
will
strengthen
the
security
of
every
nation
on
earth.

And
your companies
and industries can and
must be
in
the
lead.

A
zero-emissions
future
offers
huge
opportunity
for
business,
for
clean,
green
jobs
and
economic
growth
and,
to
use
the
President’s
words,
to
“build
back
better”
from
the
global
economic
crisis.

A
few
examples
tell
the
story:

  • The
    highest
    valued
    auto
    company
    in
    the
    world
    today
    is
    Tesla.  
    And
    it
    ONLY
    makes
    electric
    vehicles.
  • Mitsubishi
    is
    building
    the
    world’s
    largest
    zero
    emission
    steel
    plant
    –
    in
    Austria.
  • Heidelberg
    Cement
    is
    working
    on
    a
    plant
    in
    Norway
    that
    anticipates
    capturing
    all
    its
    CO2
    from
    concrete
    by
    2030.
  • Globally,
    the
    cheapest
    new
    electric
    power
    plant
    you
    can
    install
    is
    based
    on
    renewables
    –
    which
    explains
    why
    it
    now
    makes
    up
    more
    than
    70
    percent
    of
    new
    capacity.
  • And
    green
    economies
    will
    generate
    new
    jobs. 
    The
    EU
    anticipates
    2
    million
    additional
    jobs
    with
    a
    green
    economy
  • Here
    in
    the
    US,
    until
    COVID,
    we
    had
    five
    years
    of
    steady
    growth
    in
    clean
    energy
    employment
    –
    with
    over
    3.3
    million
    new
    workers
    put
    into
    jobs
    across
    our
    country
    (Clean
    Jobs
    America
    2020
    |
    E2    ).
  • And
    India
    has
    seen
    a
    five-fold
    increase
    in
    clean
    energy
    jobs
    over
    that
    same
    period
    (5-Fold
    Increase
    in
    Clean
    Energy
    Jobs
    in
    5
    Years:
    India
    (nrdc.org)         ).

But
we
need
to
all
move
together,
because
today
very
few
are
on
a
trajectory
of
the
steep
reductions
needed
to
meet
even
current
goals, let
alone
the targets
we
need
to
avert
catastrophic
damage.

We
know
we
need
to:

  • Phase
    out
    coal
    five
    times
    faster
    than
    we
    have
    been
    (based
    on
    the
    comparison
    with
    the
    trend
    from
    2013-2018)
  • Increase
    tree
    cover
    five
    times
    faster
  • Ramp
    up
    renewable
    energy
    6
    times
    faster
  • Transition
    to
    electric
    vehicles
    at
    a
    rate
    22
    times
    faster

Reaching
net-zero
global
carbon
emissions
as
early
as
2050 will
take
a
wholesale
transformation
of
the
global
economy. And
the
success
of
that
transformation will depend
in
large
part
on
leadership
from the
private
sector—firms,
investors,
and
innovators.

The
good
news,
it’s
the
economic
opportunity
of
many
lifetimes.

We’re
looking
at an unprecedented
wealth
creation
opportunity.

  • Since
    2015,
    when
    the
    Paris
    Climate
    Agreement
    was
    signed,
    solar
    and
    wind
    power
    have
    doubled
    their
    share
    of
    global
    electricity
    to
    10
    percent.1
  • In
    most
    countries
    in
    the
    world,
    renewable
    energy
    is now cheaper
    than fossil-fueled
    power
    plants.
  • Global
    investment
    in new
    clean
    power
    capacity
    is
    set
    to
    exceed
    $10
    trillion
    through
    midcentury,
    more
    than
    six
    times
    the
    investment
    in
    dirtier
    options.2
  • Other
    clean
    energy
    sectors,
    from
    hydrogen
    to
    electric
    vehicles, could also
    represent
    multi-trillion-dollar
    markets
    in
    the
    decades
    to
    come.

Here’s the
challenge.
Clean
energy
gets
cheaper, but a net-zero
transition
will
become
much
more
complex requiring
greater
leadership
–
everywhere.

It
won’t
be
enough
to
merely
keep
deploying
more
clean
energy. Major
economies
around
the
world
will
need to
design
and
execute tailored
roadmaps
to
overhaul
their own energy
systems.

They
will
need
to
collaborate
on
emissions-intensive
sectors that
cross
borders—aviation,
shipping,
heavy
industry, power,
and
more—to
chart
a
path
to
deep
decarbonization
in
each. They’ll even have
to invest
in
capturing
and
storing emissions
from
the
atmosphere and
from
polluting
plants.

Governments
have
an
important
role
to
play
in galvanizing net-zero
transitions.
But
they
must
partner
intimately
with
the
private
sector,
which
brings
expertise
in
every
corner
of
the
economy,
substantial
capacity
to
invest
in
new
infrastructure,
and
the
ingenuity
and
drive
to
bring
new
innovations
to
market.

In
this
decade
through
2030,
the
world
will
need
more
than
$1
trillion
in
annual
investment
in
clean
power
systems
to
speed
the
energy
transition.3

I’m
an
optimist
that
we
can
get
there.

Sustainable
investment
funds
surpassed
$1
trillion
for
the
first
time
on
record,
and
the
boom
in
ESG
investing
is
only
beginning,
as
fund
inflows
quadrupled
in
2020.4,5

Venture
capital
investments
in innovative technologies
to
combat
climate
change
also
surged
to
a
record
high
in
2020.

Developing
and
scaling
new
and
improved
clean
technologies
will
be
critical
to
speeding
energy
transitions
around
the
world. Even
though
a
handful
of
clean
energy
technologies,
such
as
solar
and
wind
power,
are
now
cost-competitive
with
fossil
fuels,
most
aren’t.

The
International
Energy
Agency
warns
that
42
of
46
critical
clean
energy
technologies
aren’t
on
track.6 And roughly
half
of
the
carbon
emissions
reductions
needed
for
a
swift
net-zero
transition
will
need
to
come
from
energy
technologies
that
have
not
even
reached
commercial
markets
yet.7

Trying
to
combat
climate
change
without
innovation would be
expensive,
complicated,
and
unpopular. The
good
news
is,
we
don’t
have
to
face
that
choice.

We
can
solve
this challenge as
we
have
so
many
others
– together, through
innovation.

That’s
why
it’s
critical
for
countries
to
cultivate
advanced,
clean
technology
industries.
Across
energy
storage,
advanced
mobility,
next-generation
renewable
and
other
clean
power
technologies,
clean
industrial
processes,
zero-carbon
fuels,
smart
systems,
carbon
capture,
and
more,
we
stand
at
the
precipice
of
a
rare
opportunity
to
create
new
technologies
and
new
markets.
The
countries
that
make
it
a
strategic
priority
to
foster
these
industries
of
the
future
will
not
only
help
reduce
emissions
both
within
and
outside
their
borders—they
will
also
reap
the
economic
rewards
of
powering
the
global
economic
transformation.

The
economics
of
a
net-zero
transition
don’t
need
to
be
zero-sum. Countries
can
collaborate
with
one
another
in
ways
that
accommodate
healthy
competition
while
also
recognizing
that
our
shared
efforts
to
accelerate
innovation and
a
net-zero
transition will
increase
the
size
of
the
total
economic
pie
from
which
we
will
all
prosper. Through
close
collaboration
between
the
public
and
private
sectors
and
across
national
borders,
we
can
unlock new
sources
of sustainable
finance to green capital
markets; and develop cutting-edge
products
and
services
to
slash
emissions.

Now, with humility and
ambition,
let’s get
to
work
to
make
it
a
reality
on
the
road
to
Glasgow
and
on
the
road
to
net
zero
–
the road to
defeating climate change
and
leaving
our
kids
a
world
that
is
prosperous,
healthy,
and
secure.

I look forward
to
your
questions
–
and
to
your
partnership.

Source: Sam News

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