COP27: John Kerry calls on private sector to lead decarbonisation efforts, keep goal of 1.5 degrees ‘alive’
- We have the enormous challenge of harnessing the private sector and entrepreneurs, former US secretary of state tells First Movers Coalition event
- Tackling climate change ‘increasingly in the hands of the private sector’, he says
“If we’re going to keep 1.5 degrees alive – and that is our goal – we have an enormous challenge ahead of us to bring to scale new technologies, and to harness the deeply capable capacity of the private sector and entrepreneurs, to bring them to the table,” Kerry told the First Movers Coalition leaders event at the Climate Action Innovation Zone of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on Tuesday.
“Without it, no government has enough money to accelerate to support the process. We need everybody engaged in this.”
Kerry said the coalition, launched at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow by US President Joe Biden and the World Economic Forum, should “bring the private sector to the table … to accelerate almost every aspect of what we are doing”.
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Calls for ‘climate justice’ as COP27 puts focus on compensation for poorer, vulnerable countries
Nearly 100 heads of state and government are meeting for two days starting Monday in the Red Sea resort, amid calls to deepen carbon emissions cuts and to financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.