World ‘way off track’ on climate goal, says John Kerry
The push to keep the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius is doomed unless world leaders take significant near-term action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry said Tuesday during a conversation with Harvard President Larry Bacow. “We are working very hard with countries to meet the standards set by the IEA [International Energy Agency] and the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] that we have [to reach] to achieve a 43 to 45 percent reduction in emissions between now and 2030,” said Kerry, a former U.S. senator and former U.S. secretary of state. “Only if we do that will we have a hope of keeping 1.5 degrees alive and we are way off track right now. In fact we’re heading toward 2.5, perhaps 3 degrees. So folks have a real reason to be deeply agitated and concerned about what we’re doing.” The conversation, in which...