At the G7 meeting, John Kerry, US climate commissioner, appealed to countries to heed science in the fight against the climate crisis.
US climate chief John Kerry has warned against losing sight of the climate crisis because of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The war and its effects determined everyday life, said Kerry in Berlin, where the energy and climate ministers of the seven major industrialized nations (G7) met. “But the climate crisis is not going away, and it is absolutely critical that we heed the science that tells us we must accelerate our efforts to transition to self-sufficiency, to renewable, alternative energy.”
Kerry also warned against drawing false conclusions from the Ukraine war, as a result of which Western countries want to reduce their dependence on Russian energy. One should not fall for the “false narrative” that because of Ukraine there is now an excuse to build a whole new generation of fossil fuel infrastructure. The prerequisite must be that measures to curb emissions would be taken, anything else would be “catastrophic”.
At the invitation of Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (both Greens), the G7 climate and energy ministers will discuss measures to combat climate and environmental crises until Friday. Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the USA and Great Britain belong to the group of states, with Germany currently chairing the group.
