Kerry: US to Work With China on Climate Change

Post Author:

Climate State

Date Posted:

February 16, 2014

Secretary of State John Kerry toured a factory in Beijing Saturday and announced a new joint partnership with China to work on curbing emissions and output of greenhouse gases that trap solar heat in the atmosphere. (Feb. 15)

“We just don’t have time to let a few loud interest groups hijack the climate conversation” – @JohnKerry http://t.co/AjVhIOFtlx

— Tim Kovach (@twkovach) February 16, 2014

Joe Romm (ClimateProgress) adds: Secretary of State John Kerry gave perhaps his strongest climate speech in Indonesia Sunday. He called climate change the “world’s most fearsome” weapon of mass destruction and said “the science of climate change is leaping out at us like a scene from a 3D movie. It’s warning us; it’s compelling us to act.”

At the same time, a must-read new analysis by Oil Change International finds that “all of the scenarios used by the State Department” in their Final Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline “result in emissions that put us on a path to 6 degrees C (11°F) of global warming according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).” Talk about mass destruction!

[..]

The U.S. has a serious shot at hitting the 2020 target of a 17 percent cut in CO2 emissions from 2005 levels that Obama made for the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen — a target embraced in his Climate Action Plan (but utterly ignored by State’s EIS). That requires the President to embrace strong emissions reductions from existing coal-fired power plants. But let’s not pretend that target is either especially hard to hit or scientifically meaningful (see “Developed Nations Must Cut Emissions In Half By 2020, Says New Study“).

That is to say, the fact Kerry can go to the other big emitters and commit to meeting Obama’s pledge is a necessary minimum condition to achieve a climate agreement, but it is not sufficient. He needs some moral standing. He needs to be able to demonstrate to the world the U.S. understands that far deeper cuts are needed post-2020 and that means not sticking new spigots into huge, dirty carbon pools like the tar sands.

Kerry needs to show that his words are more than words, that he actually believes climate change is the most fearsome WMD. Kerry must recommend to Obama that Keystone be killed.

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22 Comments

  1. JOHNNY FUTS February 15, 2014 at 9:03 am - Reply

    Cummins Engine Company logo…those use to be high paying jobs in my area
    $25.00+ an hour

  2. Heart Breaker 2014 February 15, 2014 at 9:51 am - Reply

    HE WENT THERE JUST TO TALK CLIMATE ??? LOLZZ
    , MAKE WAR WITH GREEDY CHINA..

  3. Come Visit Waikiki February 15, 2014 at 9:52 am - Reply

    Start with new solar cars that charge themselves as long as you park them,
    in the sun.

  4. Alex Delarge February 15, 2014 at 12:56 pm - Reply

    is it April 1st already ?

  5. Alicia Groenenboom-Bonda February 15, 2014 at 1:00 pm - Reply

    Good action from Kerry: stop nuclear power.

  6. yourvidisbad101 February 15, 2014 at 2:12 pm - Reply

    Finally something worthwhile coming out of his mouth.

  7. peepeevagi February 15, 2014 at 3:42 pm - Reply

    It’d be nice to see china cut down on the air pollution. Itd be a way more
    beautiful country than it already is if it had clear skies.

  8. Seventh Universe February 15, 2014 at 4:19 pm - Reply

    China only cares about making money and becoming a super power. They didn’t
    even change the minimum wage let alone worry about the climate

  9. horseygurl143 February 15, 2014 at 4:40 pm - Reply

    Mr. Secretary, you’re wasting your time in China. They could care less
    about anyone or anything but themselves and they are a deeply materialistic
    society. You have a better chance bringing peace to the Middle East than
    the time you’re spending there. I wish you well, but you’re wasting your
    time.

  10. John Jenkins February 15, 2014 at 4:58 pm - Reply

    Who believes this crap? LOL

    They will start a discussion now with China on climate change….The
    debates and discussions on whether green house gasses are causing the
    climate change have been over for years….Just more stall tactics as they
    get ready to approve the Keystone pipeline…..

    I can’t listen to these guys anymore….

  11. SharkDude1 February 15, 2014 at 5:02 pm - Reply

    Herman Munster here (Kerry) is such a loser! I would not even trust this
    clown to sharpen a pencil. He will Fail like he always does, and blame it
    on someone else, and then (Like his Syria stance) Get all angry and want to
    Bomb them. He’s SO predictable to Fail at everything!

  12. Billy Bob February 15, 2014 at 5:24 pm - Reply

    FUCKING IDIOT.

  13. StinkFingerr February 15, 2014 at 6:04 pm - Reply

    THIS,would help:
    Extinguish the world’s coal mine fires (Nitrogen foam will do this) many of
    which have been burning for generations.
    This,is a bigger gas emitter than most people know.
    Google:Centralia Pennsylvania. YouTube search: China Coal Mine fires.
    Initiate a major tree planting program to significantly increase the
    world’s net number of trees.

  14. TekkGnostic February 15, 2014 at 6:19 pm - Reply

    AKA: Code-word for mass population-culling strategies… to ugh, “reduce
    greenhouse gasses.”
    If you remember Bill Gates little CO2 equation, it was the P (people) in
    the equation which had to be massively reduced.

  15. Royal Wakefield February 16, 2014 at 5:09 am - Reply

    The question is how do you maintain the ecology with a fake economy.
    You can’t, you have one or the other.
    Fuck of back to Syria you ain’t finish there yet.

  16. RuleofFive February 16, 2014 at 4:00 pm - Reply

    There is so little political will to get something done on climate change
    because you have several powerful industries lined up against doing
    anything….particularly the world petroleum industry. Its
    disheartening…..especially when you look at the wacky weather patterns:

    1. Brief winter heat wave in eastern US ….followed by extreme cold as
    polar vortex broke off from the Arctic and moved into Canada and the US.
    2. Loss of sea ice in Arctic
    3. Very warm weather in Siberia in November
    4. Series of storms battering Europe’s Northwest causing massive flooding.
    5. Severe long term drought in California central valley that produces half
    of the produce in the US.

    Too much money on the side that doesn’t want to do anything….

  17. pcuimac February 17, 2014 at 10:26 am - Reply

    Just words no action. Even if they were honest, it’s much to little to
    late. If Gore had won and the bushists had not stolen the victory, we would
    have had a chance. Instead all progress got stopped and the fake ‘war on
    terror’ was instantiated. The SUV became the symbol of the new century and
    the neolib madness in financel markets ran amok, while the neocons
    destroyed the lives of millions in iraq. Humans are a lost case.

  18. Conspiratard February 17, 2014 at 6:18 pm - Reply

    Too bad they didn’t take nuclear power seriously 30+ years ago and there
    could be an abundance of cheap clean energy.

  19. TheCentralServices February 17, 2014 at 10:50 pm - Reply

    Somebody needs to shut down America.

  20. Ben Bon February 18, 2014 at 12:36 am - Reply

    We are currently going into global cooling which may last for 208 years.
    Among emitters contributing to climate change, there are natural emitters &
    man-made emitters. The ocean is the biggest natural emitter of Methane &
    CO2 gas. Second biggest is volcanoes of which we have had over 506 erupt in
    one day in 2013. Tundra areas emit 30,000 times more methane than cars. Of
    man-made emitters heating the atmosphere, there is HAARP. Of man-made
    emitters poisoning the atmosphere with vaporized nano-sized aluminum &
    other elements toxic to all life is chemtrails. Of man-made emitters
    emitting CO2 there are autos, trucks & buses. Of all emitters, man-made
    emitters contribute 3 percent of pollutants to the global atmosphere while
    natural emitters emit 97 percent of pollutants to the global atmosphere. We
    can not stop what is happening except to wear warmer clothing. Beware of
    Obama’s Dumocrat Cronies who speak with forked tongue. This fraud has to do
    with money & the “Progressive” which means Communist Socialist agenda. See
    “John Casey exposes global warming fraud” (Feb 2014) – You Tube Video:
    (7ItmaEvX77Y) for the truth.

  21. Noel Panton February 18, 2014 at 5:58 am - Reply

    Hope Tony Abbot (Prime Minister of Australia) with his big ears is
    listening

  22. runman1271 May 21, 2014 at 6:45 am - Reply

    What type of air plane did Kerry fly on?
    How many gallons of fuel did Kerry and his “party” use?
    How many gallons of fuel were burn just at this one event so everyone could
    attend?

    And why am I worried about global warming? Kerry used more fuel for this
    one event than I will use in a life time.

    Good thing I drive a big truck.

See also  Climate Change a Life and Death Issue

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Categories: China, Climate Policy, United States(2023)
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