(Singapore) Building and financing new coal-fired power plants is “irresponsible”, American climate envoy John Kerry said in Singapore on Friday, naming “greed” as the main obstacle to climate action.
Mr. Kerry also welcomed recent discussions with China on climate and deemed the upcoming negotiations at COP28 in Dubai “absolutely critical”.
The former head of US diplomacy declared that it was now “irresponsible to finance or build a coal-fired power plant anywhere in the world”.
“Clean coal does not exist. This is not going to happen anytime soon,” he added, during a Bloomberg forum on the New Economy in Singapore.
“So we really need to move forward on the coal front,” he stressed, stigmatizing the “status quo” that reigns in a large part of the globe, including in the United States.
PHOTO SINGAPORE’S MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION, PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
John Kerry and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, participating countries agreed to “gradually reduce coal-fired energy”.
China produces just over half of the world’s coal supply, with domestic production hitting a new record last year, according to the UN.
The future of fossil fuels, including coal, will be at the heart of discussions at COP28 which begins at the end of the month and whose objective is to limit warming compared to the pre-industrial era to less than 2° C and preferably at 1.5°C, in accordance with the objectives of the Paris agreement.
The UN warned on Wednesday that plans to expand oil, gas and coal production by major producing countries threaten the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C.
John Kerry received his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua in California last weekend in preparation for COP28, before an expected meeting next week between American President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the United States.
On Thursday, China and the United States assured that their recent climate discussions were a success, a new sign of resumption of dialogue between the two countries.
Mr. Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua found “an agreement” on “reducing emissions and the direction we need to take and I am hopeful about that,” said the American envoy on climate.
One of the main challenges of the Dubai summit will be to define the contours of a so-called “loss and damage” fund, adopted in principle at COP27 and supposed to compensate the poorest countries for the consequences of climate change.
The United States does not oppose this fund, but demands that China contribute to it alongside developed countries.