The AP Interview: Kerry says climate talks may miss target

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry concedes upcoming climate talks are likely to fall short of the target level for emissions cuts needed to stave off more devastating scenarios of global warming

WASHINGTON -- U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is tempering expectations for a U.N. climate summit sometimes billed as make-or-break for the Earth's future, conceding next month's talks likely will end with nations still short of the target of cuts in coal and petroleum emissions that are needed to stave off increasingly devastating levels of global warming.

But in an interview with The Associated Press, Kerry also credited efforts by the United States, European Union, Japan and other allies ahead of next month’s climate negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland with getting the world much closer to the scale of big, fast fossil fuel cuts needed. He expressed hope enough nations would join in over the next couple of years. "By the time Glasgow’s over, we’re going to know who is doing their fair share, and who isn’t,” he said.

Kerry also spoke of the impact if the U.S. Congress – under a slim Democratic majority – fails to pass legislation for significant action on climate by the United States itself, as the Biden administration aims to regain leadership on climate action. "It would be like President Trump pulling out of the Paris agreement, again,” Kerry said.

Kerry spoke to the AP Wednesday in a conference room down the hall from his office at the State Department, its upper corridors still eerily shy of people in the coronavirus pandemic. Kerry's comments came after nine months of intensive climate diplomacy by plane, phone and computer screen aimed at nailing down the most global commitments of action on climate possible ahead of the U.N. climate summit, which opens Oct. 31 in Scotland.