The US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry has refused to “hold all responsibility” for dealing with the consequences of climate change.
Kerry stated that despite what the science is saying, some quarters still point fingers elsewhere, blame others for creating the problems, and insist that the UN team has the cure to environmental issues.
Photo: John Kerry (Facebook)
“Well guess what, folks? Mother Nature does not measure where the emissions come from. They don’t have a label of one country or another on them. They are from all of the choices we make about how we move our vehicles, how we heat our homes, how we light our businesses”, Kerry said.
He stressed that there is a need to mitigate but also adapt to the coming climatic changes, insisting that there is a need to adopt the shift experienced despite not being planned to add that China tops the list of the world’s worst polluters, followed by the United States.
“We need to adapt seriously and significantly all around the world, and particularly in Africa. So yes, we need to mitigate. But in Africa and around the world, we need to adapt to this planet that is already moving towards 1.5 degrees centigrade,” he added.
Photo: John Kerry (Facebook)
He has also cautioned against investing in long-term gas projects in Africa as countries in the region, some hoping to tap recent oil and gas discoveries, wrestle with how to power their development with clean energy.
“We are not saying no gas but what we are saying is, over the next few years, gas replaces coal or replaces oil,” adding that gas can be used as a transition to cleaner energy sources, Kerry explained while addressing an African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Dakar, Senegal.
Several African leaders and stakeholders have previously stated that Africa contributes negligibly to climate change but remains the most vulnerable continent to the impacts of the same.
