John Kerry is the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, known for his longtime leadership in the international climate conversation. At the U.N. COP26 climate conference in 2021 he launched the First Movers Coalition which as of this past January had seen companies commit a total $12 billion toward buying clean-tech products. Then last year at COP27 Kerry joined the Rockefeller Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund in launching the Energy Transition Accelerator, an offset program that aims to funnel private-sector investment into renewable energy. It could mobilize up to $139 billion by 2030. Heading into COP28, he remains an advocate for catalyzing corporate climate action.
What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government, needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?
No government can solve the climate crisis alone. While the U.S. is making progress reducing emissions, it’s important that we keep working with the rest of the world to increase the use of clean energy, halt new coal plants, slash methane emissions, and protect our forests. The world needs to stop procrastinating and spreading disinformation that’s standing in the way of what science tells us we must do. We don’t have any more time to waste—it’s time we all come together and work to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis that will affect our children, grandchildren, and generations to come.
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