The populist backlash against net zero around the world is imperilling the fight against climate breakdown and must be countered urgently or we face planetary destruction “beyond comprehension”, the US climate chief, John Kerry, has warned.
He hit out at the rise of “disinformation” and “demagoguery” which he said were damaging the transition away from fossil fuels, and being used as tactics by special interests to delay action.
“People are not being told the truth about what the impacts are from making this transition [to net zero greenhouse gas emissions],” he said. “They’re being scared, purposely frightened by the demagoguery that is oblivious to the facts or distorting the facts. And in some cases outright lying is going on.”
Political leaders must be guided by the science of the climate crisis and reject the calls for delay, he said. “We have politics now entering into this – fighting for delay and fighting for progress. They’re procrastinating and they’re part of the disinformation crowd that are willing to put the whole world at risk for whatever political motivations may be behind their choices here,” Kerry told the Guardian in an interview in London.
He urged political leaders to be guided instead by clear scientific fact, which has established the need to reach net zero in order to hold down catastrophic global temperature rises.
News that Kerry would step down from his role as US climate chief this spring broke in January, but no official announcement has yet been made and he continues on a full round of travel and meetings, including talks with British parliamentarians this week. Kerry has served as special envoy for climate since Joe Biden took office in 2021, and was previously secretary of state under Barack Obama in his second presidential term, including leading the US’s negotiation and signing of the 2015 Paris agreement.
Kerry contrasted the procrastinators with the efforts of the US president to boost renewable energy and low-carbon technologies. “Nothing that we are doing, nothing that President Biden has sought to do, has any political motivation or ideological rationale. It’s entirely a reaction to science, to the mathematics and physics that explain what is happening [to the climate],” he said.
Though Kerry refused to name any specific interests or politicians, his words reflect the concern among many that the climate is likely to be weaponised in the US election campaigns this year, and in other countries as billions of people around the world head to the polls.
Donald Trump, who is campaigning to be the Republican candidate for a second term at the White House, has repeatedly cast doubt on climate science, vowing to remove the US from the Paris agreement and roll back the policies boosting clean energy espoused by Biden.
Trump is far from alone – a growing backlash against climate policies has been fanned by rightwing parties and populist leaders across the globe, claiming that net zero is too expensive or has no point, while users of social media platforms such as X have been increasingly bombarded by falsehoods and disinformation from climate change deniers.
Kerry warned that the backlash against climate action was having a substantial impact. “We have our work cut out for us because they’re scaring certain companies. You’ll see people retrenching on some things, which is exactly the wrong thing to have happening right now. We ought to be speeding up,” he said.
He said many businesses were set clearly on a path to a low-carbon future, but some were not moving fast enough. “The choice is, will we do this in time to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis? The question is, are you going to put your head in the sand and do business as usual, because you’re so greedy?”
Some countries and businesses might be tempted to backpedal on climate action, in the belief they could increase short-term profits by ignoring net zero, he said. “Why do we have a problem? Because we’re burning fossil fuels persistently, without capturing the emissions. How do you solve that problem? Capture the emissions, or don’t make them. Those are the two choices, and we’re not making those.
“Now maybe some of those guys are richer now [from exploiting fossil fuels]. For the countries well off enough that they think they won’t be affected that much, that they think they can get through it. And people with money will have an easier time adjusting. But the cost to less developed economies, the cost to emerging economies, the cost to poor people around the world will just be beyond comprehension, with billions affected by lack of food, lack of water, other implications.”
No country could hope to escape the consequences, he warned: “This is a multilateral major challenge to the security of every nation on this planet, because we’re one planet, and we’re all linked.”
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