John Kerry stated in an interview that meeting climate goals will cost $2.5-5 trillion annually for the next 30 years, with this investment coming from the private sector rather than governments.
Regarding China’s ongoing construction of coal plants, Kerry believes these may never be used as China rapidly expands renewable energy instead.
When pressed on whether China and the US will keep their climate promises, Kerry said China is building coal plants as a hedge but is deploying more renewables than all other countries combined.
“China is building more coal-fired power plants and the U.S.[‘s] emissions are not falling fast enough to meet American climate goals. And so, what leads you to believe that these promises will be kept?” NPR’s Ari Shapiro asked.
Kerry said, “Yes, China has about 360 gigawatts of coal-fired power that is slated to come online or be built. And that would be catastrophic if that’s what happens. But China is, I think, to some degree, hedging against the reality of what their economy needs as a backstop. But they’re building, they’re constructing and deploying more renewables than all of the rest of the world put together.”
He argued the coal plants could end up being an “in case of emergency” backup that sees little usage due to China’s massive renewable growth.
“You think the coal plants are a just in case break glass in case of emergency that might never be used?” Shapiro asked.
“That’s what they say to us. And that’s what begins to be a possibility as we look at the massive amount of renewable that’s being deployed,” Kerry said.
Kerry stressed that failure to act on climate change between now and 2030 would make it impossible to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
“All the finance reports say, if you want to achieve net zero 2050, then it’s going to cost about 2.5 to 4.5, 5 trillion dollars a year for the next 30 years. No government in the world has that money to put on the table, but the private sector does.” And that “if we don’t do what we need to do between now and 2030, the next six years, there is no net zero 2050, and I refuse to believe that that’s what we’re left having to accept,” he said.
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