DAVOS – The United States presidential election in 2024 will help determine whether the world stems global warming fast enough to avoid its most severe impacts, according to Mr John Kerry, the country’s climate envoy.
The transition to a lower-carbon economy is inevitable because companies are investing billions of dollars in cutting emissions, Mr Kerry said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos. But the speed at which that change happens will be affected by whoever wins the vote, which is why the stakes are “as high as they can get”, he said.
Mr Kerry has been a strong proponent of private sector-driven decarbonisation. Apple, Microsoft and Boeing are participants of the First Movers Coalition, an initiative he helped create in 2021 to persuade technology and industrial behemoths to clean up dirty industries. That effort is now bearing fruit, he said.
“General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Toyota have spent billions retooling their plants,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who the president of the US is, these CEOs won’t go back.”
The possibility of former president Donald Trump winning the Nov 5 election has been a hot topic in Davos, with concerns that his return to the White House could stymie climate progress. Mr Kerry said that policies already in place, as well as lower prices for renewable energy and some of the key components of electric vehicles, will ensure the shift to greener alternatives continues.
“The marketplace is going to support this transition and it’s irrevocable now – we’re going to get there,” Mr Kerry said. “The only question is if we’re going to get there in time to not be ravaged by the worst consequences of the climate crisis.”
Mr Kerry is stepping down from his role as climate envoy and will join President Joe Biden’s campaign for re-election.
The unmitigated burning of fossil fuels is the only cause of the climate crisis, he said, but defended the increase of US oil production to record highs as a “policy necessity”.
“You obviously can’t shut down the economies of the world – you have to try to keep the economy stable and keep the price low enough that you don’t have revolutions,” Mr Kerry said. “But that has to be accompanied by a very clear set of policies that are moving in the direction of transitioning away from fossil fuels.”
Even as the US spends billions on clean power and technologies under the Inflation Reduction Act, it also faces obstacles, from disinformation campaigns to community opposition to renewable energy projects. This is delaying a transition the country should be embracing, Mr Kerry said.
“If you’re going to have years of litigation on whether you’re going to have a wind farm nearby, we’re in trouble,” he said. “We’re not going to get there; we have to accelerate that.” BLOOMBERG
