By Mathew Carr
Dec. 9, 2022 — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry tonight criticized countries for failing to update their 2030 Paris climate targets in 2022, but he failed to mention that his own country the U.S., the nation most responsible for the climate crisis, was one of them.
Here is the relevant section of the Glasgow climate pact, agreed Nov. 2021:
Here is the U.S.’s single (not updated) Nationally Determined Contribution, as it appears on the website of the UNFCCC. It was submitted about 7 months earlier, in April 2021:
Kerry said this tonight at a lecture in London, UK:
“I would be remiss if I didn’t express some disappointment in the mitigation outcome of COP27 [which took place last month in Egypt].
“First, the collective decision — COLLECTIVE decision — coming out of Sharm [el Sheikh, where COP27 was held], the one that sends the political message from all parties to the Paris Agreement, was simply not ambitious enough.
“And when we’re in the middle of a decisive decade for reducing emissions, we cannot afford to take a one year holiday on our global mitigation efforts.
“Second, some of the top emitters of greenhouse gases did not heed the Glasgow call to strengthen their 2030 targets this year.
“So I say with clarity, not because it’s my opinion, because it’s true.
“We cannot continue to have an effective process, if countries simply choose to ignore the agreements of a prior COP.”
CarrZee: Wow. This is the definition of galling.
To be sure, 2022 did have a war that was started by Russia. Yet, remember, it was also stoked by U.S.-led NATO. The U.S. has been a major beneficiary of the war, selling arms and liquefied natural gas, which is a dangerous pollutant when it leaks into the atmosphere because it traps so much heat.
The U.S. likes to call natgas “methane” when it is a pollutant … to protect the reputation of its hugely profitable natgas industry.
Who is to blame for climate change?
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