Trump would ‘irreparably’ harm the pace of clean technology rollout: Kerry
Veteran US diplomat John Kerry warned on Thursday that the need to quickly and widely deploy climate technology to curb planet-warming emissions would be “irreparably hurt” by a Donald Trump presidency.
Kerry said a re-elected Trump cannot stop investment and innovation in clean technology, but could frustrate it at a critical time when deep emissions cuts are urgently needed.
“Accelerating these markets is the name of the game. That is the key,” the former US climate envoy said at a technology summit in London hosted by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
That “urgency and the need to move more quickly at scale… would be irreparably harmed by President Trump’s presence,” he added.
His comments come ahead of a closely watched debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord and cast doubt on the science of climate change.
Kerry said the consequences of the world’s failure to limit temperature rises are happening daily in disasters around the world.
“I think we have to remember what drives us,” he said. “This is life or death, literally.”
Since stepping down as climate envoy in March, Kerry has sought to boost investments in clean energy and other solutions to reduce emissions that cause global warming.
The world needs trillions of dollars every year to make this happen “and no government has enough money to do this,” he said.
“I believe the private sector is the entity that is going to solve this,” he said.
Kerry told investors that Trump was “determined to block most of what you do,” but that market forces would eventually prevail, even if they were frustrated.
“The market is bigger than any president or country,” Kerry told AFP.
“And the market has decided to go this way because they have to (but) also because they think there’s money to be made and it’s a better business model. So I’m confident we’ll continue regardless.”
Kerry served as Secretary of State and Senator and was the Democratic Party’s failed presidential candidate against George W. Bush in 2004.
As a top diplomat under President Barack Obama, Kerry helped negotiate the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Biden appointed Kerry to the first cabinet-level role of special envoy for climate when he took office in 2021.
