Kerry: Being ‘Good Citizens’ on Climate Causes ‘More Expensive Goods’ — We Should Invest Because Countries Might Tax U.S. Goods

During an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that in order to be a good CEO, “you need to take into account the risks that exist of not acting” on climate and one risk is “being deemed not to be acting responsibly” and that other nations will increase taxes on American goods to compensate for the fact that “other people are having more expensive goods because they’re actually investing money in the effort to be good citizens.”

Kerry said, “There are some governors who have decided they just want to attack the concept of dealing with the climate crisis. But that is completely contrary to all of the science and the CEOs of the most responsible countries — companies and the largest companies in the world are all moving to reduce their emissions. So, someone in those states ought to be asking, what does the governor know that the people who run these largest companies in the world that employ millions of Americans are listening to and are responding to.”

He added “I think that to be a good chief executive today and to lead your company properly, you need to take into account the risks that exist of not acting, the supply chain disruptions that will occur, the loss of market share, America not being a good — being deemed not to be acting responsibly and therefore, maybe even paying an extra price to sell its goods in certain countries. There’s a growing movement now to have adjustments in the — border tax adjustments for places that choose not to clean up their act so that they’re selling goods that are made from a dirty process while other people are having more expensive goods because they’re actually investing money in the effort to be good citizens.”

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