John KerryBourget Paris Agreement
Source: Rahma Sophia Rachdi
Last month I announced in New York that in order to help with the early stages of an ambitious HFC amendment, the United States and other donor countries intended to contribute an additional $27 million now, and I am confident as we go forward that more money will be produced, but that is the amount that we will produce immediately into the fund in 2017. And because we all recognize that governments aren´t going to do this all by themselves, a dozen donors from philanthropic and private sector community announced that they, too, are going to contribute, and they pledged at least another $50 million if we are successful." said US secretary Kerry in a tone of optimism.----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, I remember a very late night in Paris when people were agitating and some people were worried that somehow the differentiation because of common and differentiated wasn´t being acknowledged enough. Well remember, that has never been part of the Montreal Protocol discussion. Never. That is not the standard we have ever applied. But nevertheless, in Paris we passed the most differentiated agreement ever in history. How can I say that? Because it´s true. Every single country came to Paris with its own plan designed by itself with a review process that is not accountable under the law, so it´s open to everybody´s application.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, here it´s the same thing. We have countries coming in that are prepared to start in 2021. We are and we will, but we know we can´t hold everybody to that. So other countries will start at a later time with a different baseline, and other countries perhaps even different from that. We understand that. That´s why we have a group 1 and a group 2, and we´re working through these things. But no country has a right to turn its back on this effort and to forget about the meaning of a multilateral effort where the world is looking to us to try to literally save this planet from what we ourselves have chosen to do with respect to how we power our energy and what we have done for more than 150 years or more.
I don´t think there´s any question at all that every single person here, every negotiator, every country represented is here because everybody is committed to progress. I believe that. And we have been working towards this goal for some time now. Many of you have put in more long days and nights than you ever imagined you were going to. In fact, we´ve been working towards this day for those full 28 years, folks, but particularly towards this meeting and this amendment and this effort for quite some period of time.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I came to Kigali for the same reason that I came to Vienna last July: because I don´t want anybody to have the least doubt whatsoever about the commitment of the United States to try to make this happen, to invest in these negotiations and to invest in the outcomes, to continue to lead in order to help put technical assistance, resources, money, and intellectual property, and all of the effort that we can to help countries be able to cross this line. We are willing to work with all of you to make possible a meaningful outcome.And I want to emphasize: That meaningful outcome is not some pie-in-the-sky dream out there that´s yet to be defined. It´s not some intangible, yet to be defined technology or something that we don´t know how to do. It´s not.-
I just came from Silicon Valley; I went out there three or four days ago for the simple reason I wanted to hear what they´re doing. I wanted to sit at the table with all of the young start-ups and all of the creative energy that´s going into finding the solutions for battery storage, for new refrigerants, for new heat transmission ““ all of these kinds of things that we´re working on. And I tell you, I came away so confident, so excited about what is happening and what will happen. It is clear that businesses are already moving as rapidly as possible to deliver energy in a less expensive, more efficient, modern, and effective way.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And last year ““ think about this ““ investment in renewable energy was at an all-time high ““ $348 billion was invested. And for the first time in history, despite the low price of oil, gas, and coal, more of the world´s money was spent fostering renewable energy technologies than on new fossil fuel plants. That´s the transformation that we´re in the middle of. And costs for these technologies continue to plummet. I think it was Argentina recently just letted a contract for 2.99 cents for solar per kilowatt hour. Saudi Arabia letted a contract for 3 cents per kilowatt hour for solar. I am absolutely convinced that Moore´s Law, the law of technology, about what happens when you begin down a road is going to take over, and there´s no question whatsoever. The marketplace is going to decide this, folks.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And I´ll tell you what ““ it´s 2016, right? The first baselines don´t even begin until 2019, 2020, 2021. Then you go to “˜24, “˜23, “˜24, “˜25, “˜26 and some out into later ““ 10 years in this world of technology is a lifetime, many lifetimes.And the fact is that if we continue to remember the high stakes for every country on Earth, the global transition to a clean energy economy is going to accelerate. It is going to drive a virtuous cycle of greater innovation, greater investment, greater productivity, cheaper products, faster compliance with all of what we´re trying to do". US secretary Kerry said. Source US Department of State. To be continued in next article
