Kerry: ‘Inviting catastrophe’ on climate

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Monday that the lack of a global commitment to address climate change is “inviting catastrophe” and piling on uncertainty for business.

{mosads}Addressing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Indonesia, Kerry stressed the impacts of climate change while acknowledging the public’s wariness to accept the scientific data.

“The fact is that the absence of a concerted global commitment to address this is inviting catastrophe,” he said. “And for everybody’s business, it is inviting uncertainty.”

Kerry said he understands that “when people talk about climate change, eyes still glaze over.” But he expressed amazement that “against all evidence, there are still some people who wonder if it’s real — and many wonder what they can actually do about it.”

Kerry cited a new United Nations report, released last month, that said with high certainty that human activity is the “dominant cause” of climate change. 

“As the world’s biggest consumers of energy and the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, Pacific nations, including my own — we’re No. 2 in the world — Pacific nations including my own have an enormous responsibility to lead a transformation that can not only save lives, but create millions of jobs,” Kerry said. 

And the solution is clean energy, Kerry said, calling it an economic revolution in the making.

Comparing the possibilities of an economic boom surrounding the energy industry to that of the technology boom in the 1990s, Kerry said there is $6 trillion market waiting for the energy sector, with six to nine billion more users over the next 20 to 40 years.

Kerry noted the U.S. is now the world’s largest energy supplier in oil and gas. He credited APEC for moving toward energy efficiency and reducing fossil fuel subsidies. 

His remarks come after President Obama announced he would take a harder line to tackle climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced its first in a wave of four proposed rules to increase restrictions on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Kerry will meet with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, representatives of the Pacific Island countries and APEC leaders Tuesday to continue talks on a sustainable economic development program, which highlights energy.