Europe, 18 May. US climate envoy John Kerry used a visit to Europe to reassure people they would not have to eat less meat or lower their quality of life to reduce carbon emissions. Mr Kerry is on a trip to Italy, Britain and Germany as preparations gather pace for November’s Cop26 climate change summit in Glasgow. While in Italy, he attended an audience with Pope Francis and revealed the pontiff was planning to attend the talks.Before moving on to Britain, Mr Kerry raised eyebrows by suggesting half of the necessary emissions cuts would be achieved by futuristic technology that does not yet exist.
“Look at what we did to push the creation of vaccines, look at what we did to go to the moon, look at what we did to invent the internet,” Mr Kerry told BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show. “We know how to invent and innovate, and we’re going to put every effort we have into making this transition happen as fast as possible.” Asked whether Joe Biden’s administration would have to tell people to eat less meat, Mr Kerry responded: “Not necessarily”. “There’s a lot of research being done now that will change both the way meat is produced, cattle are herded and fed – there’s research being done that actually reduces the amount of methane,” he said. “I think there’s a false choice here … you don’t have to give up a quality of life to achieve some of the things that we know we have to achieve.” “I am told by scientists – not by anybody in politics but by scientists – that 50 per cent of the reductions we have to make to get to net zero by 2050 or 2045 … 50 per cent of those reductions are going to come from technologies that we don’t yet have.”
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