US Secretary of State John Kerry today urged nations to set ambitious goals to curb greenhouse gases, warning climate change deniers that gambling with the Earth's future was a risky business as "there is no Planet B."
"We have nine short months to come together around the kind of agreement that will put us on the right path," Kerry said ahead of a key UN climate change conference to be held in Paris in December.
Countries, which are tasked with trying to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels, have until March 31 to announce their commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
"If we fail, future generations will not and should not forgive those who ignore this moment, no matter their reasoning," said Kerry, long a passionate environmental advocate, adding that "for decades now the science has been screaming at us."
"And they will want to know how world leaders could possibly have been so blind, or so ignorant, or so ideological, or so dysfunctional, and, frankly, so stubborn that we failed to act on knowledge that was confirmed by so many scientists in so many studies over such a long period of time."
"Clean energy is not only a solution to climate change. Guess what? It's also one of the greatest economic opportunities of all time," Kerry said.
And he predicted that by 2035 investment in the energy sector was expected to reach some $17 trillion, more than the entire current GDP of China.
"Gambling with the future of Earth itself when we know full well what the outcome would be is beyond reckless; it is just plain immoral, and it is a risk that no one should take," Kerry said.
"And we need to face reality: There is no Planet B."
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