U.S. climate envoy Kerry says big countries must step up

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U.S. climate envoy Kerry says big countries must step up

President-elect Joe Kerry, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's special presidential envoy for climate change, speaks as President-elect Biden announces his national security nominees and appointees at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. November 24, 2020. REUTERS Joshua Roberts File Photo

WASHINGTON, December 1, Reuters -- U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said on Wednesday that big countries like China, India, Russia and others must move faster to help the world avert the worst effects of global warming.

The pledges of governments to cut carbon dioxide and methane emissions are not enough to limit global warming to an international target of 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels this century.

And that means China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, a group of countries that are going to have to step up, Kerry said.

Kerry said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference that we have to help them. This is not just unloaded responsibility on them. Kerry said Washington was working with countries to speed up the transition to cleaner forms of energy and reduce emissions. He pointed out the U.S. support for India's clean energy initiatives, as well as a joint agreement that the United States secured with China last month, in which Beijing committed to accelerating emissions cuts.

Kerry said private investment in clean-energy technologies - including green hydrogen, long-term battery storage, modular nuclear reactors and carbon capture - was also important to addressing climate change.

The world can meet the 1.5 C target set by the Paris Agreement in 2015 when world governments agreed last month at a climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland to revisit their national emission-cutting pledges in 2022. Scientists have warned that crossing that threshold could unleash catastrophic climate impacts from sea level rise to more frequent powerful storms, droughts and floods.