Coal plants should not be permitted “anywhere in the world” the self-described “militant” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Sunday at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.
Kerry said he is becoming “more and more” militant about climate policy because people are avoiding responsibility and not doing as they are told, focusing on countries that continue to build polluting coal fired power plants, saying:
We don’t need that necessarily to tell us we ought to be transitioning out of coal. There shouldn’t be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world.
That’s how you can do something for health. And the reality is that we’re not doing it.
Kerry spoke at the conference during the first dedicated “Health Day” designed to highlight the connections between the climate crisis and health crises, The Hill reports.
He said the climate and health issues are one and the same, a message he delivers on his endless flights around the globe talking about the “climate crisis.”
Kerry said he is becoming more militant about coal plants because he does not “understand how adults who are in positions of responsibility can be avoiding responsibility for taking away those things that are killing people on a daily basis.”
He has previously expressed his frustration at the lack of attention his message receives, with China showing no sign of ending its love affair with coal.
A report from two energy research groups in August found China has over 300 more coal power plants in the works, issuing permits for another 52 gigawatts of coal power in just the first half of 2023 alone.
The report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said China doubled its commissions of coal plants in 2023 as its coal spree continues to escalate.
Kerry is serving as the first U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, and was nominated by President Joe Biden in November 2020.
RELATED: John Kerry on Biden Climate Agenda: ‘So Logical — I Don’t Understand the Opposition’
On Saturday he applauded the Biden administration announcement it is sending $3 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds to the U.N.’s flagship Green Climate Fund (GCF) as Breitbart News reported.
“The GCF has established a strong track record of enabling countries to accelerate the energy transition, assisting communities around the world in building resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis, and mobilizing significant private capital for climate action,” Kerry said as he cheered the cash largesse funded by U.S. taxpayers.
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