U.S.
to push ahead on climate pact before Trump takes over: Kerry
By Charlotte
Greenfield | WELLINGTON
U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry said on Sunday the Obama administration would do
everything it could to implement a global agreement to combat climate
change before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Kerry made the
comments during a visit to New Zealand just before setting off to
Marrakesh, Morocco to take part in climate talks between 200 nations.
Donald Trump, who
calls global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the Paris
Agreement, was considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year
procedure for leaving the accord, according to a source on Trump's
transition team.
Kerry declined to
speculate on what Trump might do about the Paris Agreement and noted
that there was sometimes a difference between campaigning and
governing.
But the top American
diplomat was clear he thought further action to prevent climate
change should be a priority.
"The evidence
is mounting in ways that people in public life should not dare to
avoid accepting as a mandate for action," Kerry told journalists
at a press conference in Wellington with New Zealand Prime Minister
John Key
"Until January
20 when this administration is over, we intend to do everything
possible to meet our responsibility to future generations to be able
to address this threat to life itself on the planet."
Kerry's visit to
Wellington followed a two-day trip to Antarctica where he flew in a
helicopter over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which would add to
rising sea levels if it melts, and spoke to scientists researching
how fast climate change is likely to occur.
The U.S. accounts
for just under 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions so is
considered a key player in the Paris Agreement, which has been
ratified by 109 countries so far.
The accord seeks to
limit rising temperatures that have been linked to increasing
economic damage from desertification, extinctions of animals and
plants, heat waves, floods and rising sea levels.
(Reporting by
Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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