In Short : Kerry’s acknowledgment that “not everybody is doing as promised” underscores the challenges and disparities in meeting climate goals, as well as the gaps in implementation of climate policies and commitments. This statement may serve as a call to action for countries to recommit to their climate targets and to step up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.
In Detail : In a digital briefing Wednesday, John Kerry called on COP28 to hold nations accountable for failing to deliver on promises made at earlier summits in fight against climate change.
New Delhi : The US special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, has called on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 28 (COP28) to hold accountable those nations who have failed to deliver on promises made to fight the global climate crisis.
“We know from the IEA [International Energy Agency] that if all the promises of Glasgow [COP26] were fulfilled and all the promises of Sharm el-Sheikh [COP27] were fulfilled, you could be, by 2050, at either 1.8°C or 1.7°C of warming on the planet. It shows that with this effort, things could be within grasp, though not completely, for the simple reason that not everybody is doing what they promised to do,” Kerry said Wednesday during a digital press briefing hosted by the Dubai Regional Media Hub of the US department of state.
He added: “Needless to say that is a problem and we need to have accountability at this COP for that lack of follow-through by some.”
The conference of parties has been held annually since the UNFCCC was signed at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and 196 countries will be participating in this year’s conference, starting Thursday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
COP3 at Kyoto and COP21 at Paris have been two of the most significant conferences.
COP3 led to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol that established legally binding emission reduction targets for the high-income countries. COP21 led to the Paris Agreement which set the goal of limiting global warming below the 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
Scientists have warned that global warming beyond the 2°C limit will have catastrophic effects.
Kerry Wednesday also spoke about what would be US’s focus at COP 28 and the US-China cooperation on methane emissions.