John Kerry calls Trump the “biggest loser” for dropping climate action at COP31
The former climate envoy said Trump “walked away from the battlefield” with China. The White House says the summit ignores the harm done by climate policies
ANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 12 – Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said President Donald Trump is the “biggest loser” for scrapping action on the climate crisis and handing the race for clean energy to China. In his COP31 remarks, Kerry said the president was missing the point.
Kerry spoke to the Guardian at the summit in Antalya on Thursday. He served as climate envoy under President Joe Biden.
He was asked about comments Trump made on Monday. Trump said he would not approve wind turbines, as Congress weighs a bill to make it easier to build new energy projects.
“Wind turbines are a major loser,” Trump said.
Kerry turned the word back on him. He said the first thing people should do is hold up a big mirror so Trump can look at a loser.
“He’s the biggest loser we’ve seen in a long time on all of these issues,” Kerry said.
He said Trump was missing the competition with China, a market for goods that could be made in the United States, and an opportunity for the country for the clean technology supply chain.
The Trump administration has sent no team to the summit. Almost every other country is taking part in the talks, which began on Monday. Trump has pulled the United States out of the global climate process and cut back measures that reduced emissions. He has called climate science a “hoax” and urged countries to drill for more oil and gas.
Under Biden, the United States passed a major climate law. It gave tax breaks for clean energy and for building electric cars, in a bid to compete with China, which leads the world in clean technology.
Republicans have since removed most of that support. Trump has instead imposed tariffs on a range of goods and spent public money to keep struggling coal plants open.
Kerry said Trump wants to beat China but has withdrawn from the field. He said Trump has taken the United States out of the clean energy sector entirely, adding that a country cannot become number one by shutting out an entire part of its economy.
Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, has long urged the United States and other countries to follow China’s lead on green energy.
The rapid growth of renewable power has helped prevent a large amount of new fossil fuel capacity from being built. Global emissions fell slightly last year.
But far deeper cuts are needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the summit that it was long past time to phase out fossil fuels.
The slow pace of the talks has angered campaigners. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who arrived in Antalya on Tuesday, was blunt.
“Cops have become greenwashed circuses,” Thunberg said, referring to the annual climate summits.
Kerry agreed that progress has been slow. He said politicians need to discuss the climate crisis in a way that reaches the public.
He also said climate concerns played a part in the Democrats’ wins in last week’s midterm elections. Climate was not the main issue, he said, but worries about global heating overlapped with anger over rising energy costs, and that pushed voters toward the Democrats.
He said many of the winning Democrats will put climate high on their agenda. He said the serious analysis he has seen shows it was one of the issues that counted.
The White House rejected the summit. A White House official said it ignores how what the official called extremist climate policies are hurting countries around the world.
The talks run until November 20.
