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Source: COP22
“So I say to you clearly and I say without any doubt: Bet on the future. Don´t hedge against the future here. Bet on the future of the planet and bet on the future of human ingenuity. And believe me, I tell you, the message that we sent out of Paris is what sent the signal that has created the kind of investment figures that I just quoted.
Wait until you see what happens with investment if we send a powerful message from Kigali about this particular effort.
This is a time for leadership. And everybody here is a leader in this effort.
Again and again, we have gone beyond the targets that we set for ourselves in the Montreal Protocol. Remember that. We´ve consistently beaten the targets and we´ll beat these targets. If we´re going to adopt an amendment this year, we need to conclude negotiations on a level of ambition in the coming hours. And if we´re going to give this amendment the teeth that it needs to prevent as much a half a degree of warming, then we need to make sure that we are pushing the most far-reaching amendment that we can adopt. Every week, every day that we are able to move up the freeze dates, or every hour we´re able to accelerate our phasedown schedules ““ every bit of HFC production and consumption that we can reduce all makes a difference.
Adopting the Paris Agreement was a clear signal to the world ““ and particularly the private sector ““ this is where governments in every corner of the globe are going. Governments in every corner of the globe finally understand the true magnitude of the challenge and what it means to global security ““ security, folks. We´re going to see climate refugees. We already have the greatest refugee crisis we´ve had since World War II, but we are going to see ““ we already see some climate refugees and we will see more.
If you think there´s a challenge to provide food for some people, just think of the challenge for those people who think they found a place where they can produce the food and it all changes, because the lack of water, the increased heat. That´s what we´re facing. The fact is that real security is at stake in this, because if people have food problems and water problems and refugee problems, then we all have problems with countering violent extremism and managing our economies.
So if we can adopt an ambitious HFC amendment here in Kigali, the message is going to be underscored the same way that it was in Paris, and it will demonstrate to the private sector just how serious we are, and that will immediately move capital into finding the solutions to this problem. Why? Because people will make money, because there are revenue streams for energy, for refrigerators, for air conditioning.
In the end, what we do here today is actually about much more than just one amendment. It´s about much more than the Montreal Protocol. It´s about whether we have actually woken up as a world in a meaningful way to the harsh reality of climate change.
We´ve known about this threat for decades now. But for a long time, we have allowed countries to be divided into certain kinds of fault lines ““ rich and poor, north and south, industrialized and developing. And those divisions prevented us for years from achieving any meaningful progress. And so I can remember from the day I went to Rio in 1992 to the follow-on conferences in Bueno Aires, the Kyoto efforts we made, all the way to Copenhagen and that failure, and then the passage in Paris. We lost years in this effort. We delayed action and the challenge grew and it became harder and harder to overcome. And every year that we wait here, it will become more expensive and it will become more demanding.
But then we found a way to go forward. We turned the corner. We removed many of the hurdles that had been blocking the road to progress. And because of the unprecedented cooperation that was built among so many different nations ““ there are almost 200 here ““ because of that, we were able to achieve the most inclusive, the most ambitious global climate agreement in history.
In the time since, as I mentioned, we´ve all seen the evidence of growing need for a collective commitment to action. Last week, we actually crossed a remarkable threshold. That was to bring the Paris Agreement into force this year, far quicker than most people imagined that we could.
So, my friends, we have hours left here, into the wee hours, no doubt. But today, our commitment is being tested yet again, and we have to prove ourselves yet again. I will tell you that ““ excuse me ““ having been part of those many other years of meetings, I actually come to Kigali more confident than ever that we have the knowledge, we have the ability, we have the solutions ““ some yet to be fully defined, but we are on the cusp of one of the greatest revolutions in the history of humankind. And I believe our community of nations finally understands the magnitude of what we are up against. I believe we´ve all learned that none of our nations, not one of us, is equipped to deal with this generational task all by ourselves. And I believe we all recognize that it is time to meet this global threat with all of the seriousness and all of the purpose and all of the commitment that it demands, and to do what we must do to urgently meet this need now, and to do so boldly.
So I say to everybody here, let´s get this job done, just as we did in Paris. Let´s do it the way we did, let´s get it done in the next few hours, let´s move forward, and together, I think we can leave here with pride in the foundation we have laid for the greatest change our planet has ever seen in how we energize and service our marketplaces, and most importantly, live up to our obligation to protect the future for the future. Thank you very much. (Applause.)." US Secretary Joh Kerry said. End of the Speech. Source US department of State
