John Kerry delivers remarks about climate change at the World Economic Forum's 2023 conference
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry lauded fellow attendees at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday for trying to save the planet.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry lauded fellow attendees at the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, for trying to save the planet.
Kerry characterized efforts to combat climate change and save the planet as "almost extraterrestrial" given their scope in his remarks earlier Tuesday. He also downplayed criticism that has been levied against such climate activism, noting that "most people" believe he and the other WEF participants are just "crazy" tree huggers.
"When you start to think about it, it's pretty extraordinary that we — select group of human beings because of whatever touched us at some point in our lives — are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet," Kerry remarked. "I mean, it's so almost extraterrestrial to think about ‘saving the planet.’"
"If you say that to most people, most people think you're just a crazy tree-hugging, lefty, liberal, you know, do-gooder or whatever and there's no relationship," he added. "But really, that's where we are."
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry addresses attendees of the World Economic Forum meeting on Tuesday. (World Economic Forum/Video screenshot)
Kerry — who delivered the speech during a WEF session titled "Philanthropy: A Catalyst for Protecting Our Planet" — added that "allegedly wise adult human beings" still want to ignore the science, mathematics and physics of climate change. He also said half the species on Earth have already been killed, an apparent reference to a 2020 study predicting that global warming would eliminate half of the planet’s animal and plant species by 2070.
He also said the current growth trajectory of the world is unsustainable and implored world leaders to double down on climate commitments and policies, saying not nearly enough has been done to stave off the worst of climate change.
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"If you look at the way we live, the incredible sort of destructive process of growth the way we interpret it — not as enlightened growth, but as a sort of robber baron growth — growth driven by a lot of different things," he said. "We had 18 separate $1 billion events in the United States last year. And you look at Pakistan with 30 million people, in one single event, displaced and their lives were affected. An extraordinary upheaval."
"We have to find a way to get really serious about bringing the corporate world on board around the world," he continued.
"We're not doing everything we promised," Kerry added. "Nobody."
Kerry's comments come as the Biden administration and other Western nations push an aggressive green transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. In his role at the State Department, Kerry has engaged in high-level climate policy talks with international counterparts and led U.S. delegations to climate summits and events.
The WEF conference marked the latest forum in which world leaders have come together to discuss ways to limit global warming.
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However, such negotiations and policies have been criticized for their potential impact on both wealthy and poor nations.
"We're telling developing nations that we don't want them to go through the process of developing, we don't want them to have coal or natural gas or even nuclear. We want them to use wind and solar which is intermittent, which is ineffective, which is incredibly cost-prohibitive," Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power The Future, previously told Fox News Digital.
"It's the epitome of privilege," he continued. "There is no greater white privilege than being a climate change activist. It is the privilege of rich and elite folks — you could even throw in the word godless if you wanted — who need to feel like they care about something in this world. So, they cling to the climate change cult, but they're unaffected by the consequences of it."
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