Dedication to fighting climate change will make or break a presidential candidate’s campaign, says Secretary of State John Kerry.
Coming off a fresh victory one day after nearly 200 countries approved a climate deal in Paris committed to putting a stranglehold on global warming, Kerry warned that for someone looking to be elected president, avoiding the fight to stop climate change puts him or her on the wrong side of history.
“I don’t believe you can be elected president of the United States if you don’t understand climate change or you’re not committed to this kind of a plan,” Kerry told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Saturday morning.
Most Republicans running for the White House have said they would not have attended the Paris climate talks. They have vowed to roll back President Obama’s domestic climate agenda, which is the basis for the case the U.S. made to rally the international community to commit to the Paris Agreement. This includes the Clean Power Plan that is being challenged by 27 states in the federal appeals courts for regulations on power plants that they argue go too far under the law.
Stephanopoulos asked whether the next president can unravel Obama’s legacy of fighting climate change.
“Well, obviously if a Republican were elected, and have the ability to undo things by executive order then the answer is yes,” Kerry said. “But that’s why I don’t believe the American people who predominately do believe what is happening with climate change, I don’t think they’re going to accept as a genuine leader someone who doesn’t understand the science of climate change and isn’t willing to do something about it.
“You know, we had eight storms last year, which cost America well more than a billion dollars per storm,” Kerry continued. “It’s far cheaper to recognize what’s coming and cure the problem ahead of time.”
