Climate change has brought humanity to a “precipice”, John Kerry has said, as he savaged the “extremist political voices” who tried to deny it by waging war on science.
The US Special Envoy called for a global ban on coal-fired power stations as a critical step in tackling the crisis, calling it the “dirtiest fuel burned in the dirtiest way”.
Mr Kerry also said the Cop28 summit in Dubai later this year offered a “unique opportunity” to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy.
The US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate was speaking at the inaugural Scottish Global Dialogues event in Edinburgh’s Signet Library.
The Paris Agreement in 2015 saw 200 nations vowed to try to keep global temperature rises to below 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
“We’re significantly off track,” Mr Kerry said, with carbon emissions rising not falling.
Nevertheless there were “many more reasons for optimism” than a decade ago, including the growth in renewable power and increased sales of electric vehicles.
He said the world was “now on the precipice of tipping points… the point at which events can simply unfold of their own momentum, the point at which our reckless abuse of an ecosystem has unleashed forces of nature way beyond our control”.
He said: “No-one can predict with certainty the exact pace and scope of this unravelling.
“But common sense tells us inaction doesn’t have a prayer of stopping what is happening.
“This is one of the most dangerous moments in human history.
“But it may also be the greatest moment of opportunity for human advancement. We have the chance now to write a future filled with choices that not only make life cleaner, healthier, fairer, and safer.”
With major wildfires in Hawaii, Canada, Turkey and Greece, Mr Kerry said: “Mother Nature is now sending an ever-more desperate distress signal about the coming catastrophe.”
He said the climate crisis was caused by the “unabated burning of fossil fuel”, along with deforestation and “potent super-pollutants from industry and agriculture”.
Calling for action, he said: “It should be obvious by now – we have better choices.”
He continued: “Knowing what we know are the impacts and given the alternative options, there is just no rational reason for contributing more to the problem by turning to the world’s dirtiest fuel burned in the dirtiest way [in power stations].
“Unless we, all of us, start doing more, faster, now, future generations will trade the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness for struggle in the pursuit of survival.”
Mr Kerry condemned “extremist political voices” and those with “vastly vested interests” who he said had “declared war on facts and science” when dealing with environmental issues.
These groups would “choose a destructive status quo over the opportunity to build a clean energy economy”, he added.
Hitting out at those who “refuse to accept the facts behind the increasingly obvious damages of the climate crisis”, Mr Kerry said that “without facts or economics on their side, they flatly deny what is happening to our planet and what we must do to save it.
As a result, he said: “Humanity is inexorably threatened by humanity itself.”
Humza Yousaf, who introduced Mr Kerry, also announced £24m for three aid agencies to help communities hit by climate change in Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia.
Speaking to the media later, the First Minister accused Rishi Sunak of “climate denial” over his plans to grant 100 exploration licences for North Sea oil and gas.
The Prime Minister said last month the first licences would be confirmed in the autumn.
Mr Yousaf said: “What holds us back, of course, is a prime minister that’s in climate denial, coming up to Scotland to announce approval of 100 new oil and gas licences.
“Of course the North Sea is important, we’ve got to take workers with us if we want to accelerate pace of the just transition, which can’t happen with a UK Government that simply denies the state of the climate crisis.”
Mr Sunak previously told BBC Radio Scotland: “Even when we reach net zero in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs will still come from oil and gas, and domestic production has about a quarter of a third of the carbon footprint of imported gas.
“Not only is it better on our energy security not to rely on foreign dictators for that energy, not only is it good for jobs, particularly Scottish jobs, it is actually better for the environment because there is no point in importing stuff from halfway around the world with two to three times the carbon footprint of the stuff we’ve got at home, that makes absolutely no sense.”
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