John Kerry, US government envoy to the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), said Saturday that the summit’s final agreement brings the world closer to avoiding chaos and ensuring “clean air, a healthier water and a healthier planet”.
In a press conference given shortly after the end of tense negotiations, the US senator assured that the conclusion “is not an exaggeration” and that the pact reached at the last minute, despite differences between the 197 countries that participated in the COP26, deepens the signed commitments in the Paris Agreement in 2015. “Paris built the stadium, and Glasgow begins the race. And tonight, the kick-off was fired,” Kerry said.
The American highlighted that, at COP26, the equivalent of 65% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was committed to “real plans” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees until the end of the century, in comparison with the pre-industrial period. Kerry also praised that, for the first time, a “carbon reference” was included in a climate agreement in Article 36, which calls for speeding up its “progressive reduction”, after India introduced an unexpected change that replaced the word “elimination” for “reduction”.
“We must reduce carbon, before eliminating carbon,” said the US envoy, who assured the country’s commitment to fighting climate change, after what he called the “absence” of the former US government, under the leadership by Donald Trump.
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