{"id":34155,"date":"2021-04-19T17:22:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T00:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=34155"},"modified":"2021-04-19T17:22:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T00:22:29","slug":"secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-chesapeake-bay-foundation-tackling-the-crisis-and-seizing-the-opportunity-americas-global-climate-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=34155","title":{"rendered":"Secretary Antony J. Blinken Remarks to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation: \u201cTackling the Crisis and Seizing the Opportunity: America\u2019s Global Climate Leadership\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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04\/19\/2021 07:00 PM EDT<\/div>\n
\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

Annapolis, Maryland<\/p>\n

Philip Merrill Environmental Center<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, good afternoon, everyone.\u00a0 And Will, thank you for a wonderful introduction.\u00a0 And thank you for lending us this absolutely spectacular setting and backdrop \u2013 certainly the best setting and backdrop I\u2019ve had in my brief tenure as Secretary.\u00a0 And thanks so much to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for your lasting commitment to save the Bay.<\/p>\n

The Chesapeake Bay was formed nearly 12,000 years ago by melting glaciers.\u00a0 Today, it stretches 200 miles and is home to over 3,600 species of plants and animals.\u00a0 A hundred thousand rivers and streams feed over 50 billion gallons of water into the Bay every single day.\u00a0 More than 18 million people live in the watershed, and many rely on it for their livelihood.\u00a0 The local seafood industry alone provides some 34,000 jobs and nearly $900 million in annual income.<\/p>\n

And yet, as Will alluded to, warming temperatures caused by human activity are transforming the Bay.\u00a0 Its water is rising.\u00a0 And the land \u2013 including where I stand right now \u2013 is sinking due to the melting of the glaciers that formed the Bay.\u00a0 If this continues at the current pace, in just 80 years, the Bay will extend inland for miles, overtaking the homes of 3 million people, destroying roads, bridges, farms.\u00a0 Many of the Bay\u2019s plants and animals will die out.\u00a0 So will the fishing industry.\u00a0 To my children\u2019s children, the landscape will be unrecognizable.<\/p>\n

We have to stop this from happening while we still can.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why President Biden took steps to rejoin the Paris Agreement right after taking office, and named Secretary Kerry as our nation\u2019s first Special Presidential Envoy for Climate to lead our efforts around the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s also why President Biden invited 40 world leaders to Washington this week for a summit on climate.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s why the Biden-Harris administration will do more than any in history to meet our climate crisis.\u00a0 This is already an all-hands-on-deck effort across our government and across our nation.\u00a0 Our future depends on the choices we make today.<\/p>\n

As Secretary of State, my job is to make sure our foreign policy delivers for the American people \u2013 by taking on the biggest challenges they face and seizing the biggest opportunities that can improve their lives.\u00a0 No challenge more clearly captures the two sides of this coin than climate.<\/p>\n

If America fails to lead the world on addressing the climate crisis, we won\u2019t have much of a world left.\u00a0 If we succeed, we will capitalize on the greatest opportunity to create quality jobs in generations; we\u2019ll build a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable society; and we\u2019ll protect this magnificent planet.\u00a0 That\u2019s the test we face right now.<\/p>\n

Today, I want to explain how American foreign policy will help us meet that test.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, we had to imagine the impact of climate change. \u00a0No one has to imagine it anymore.<\/p>\n

For the last 60 years, every decade has been hotter than the one that came before it.<\/p>\n

Weather events are becoming more extreme.\u00a0 During the cold wave this February, temperatures from Nebraska to Texas were more than 40 degrees below normal.\u00a0 In Texas alone, thousands were left homeless, over 4 million people went without heat and electricity, more than 125 people died.\u00a0 It may seem counterintuitive that global warming leads to cold weather.\u00a0 But as the Arctic warms, cold weather gets pushed south.\u00a0 And that can contribute to record cold spells like the one in Texas.<\/p>\n

The 2020 wildfire season burned more than 10 million acres.\u00a0 That\u2019s more than the entire state of Maryland.\u00a0 We saw five of the six biggest wildfires in California\u2019s history, and the single biggest wildfire in Colorado\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Together, natural disasters in 2020 cost the United States around $100 billion.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 2019 was the wettest year on record for the lower 48 states.\u00a0 Heavy rains and floods prevented farmers in the Midwest and Great Plains from planting 19 million acres of crops.<\/p>\n

And from 2000 to 2018, the American Southwest experienced its worst drought since the 16th century \u2013 the 16th century.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re running out of records to break.<\/p>\n

The costs \u2013 in monetary damage, livelihoods, human lives \u2013 keep going up.<\/p>\n

And unless we turn this around, it\u2019s going to get worse.<\/p>\n

More frequent and more intense storms; longer dry spells; bigger floods; more extreme heat and more extreme cold; faster sea level rise; more people displaced; more pollution; more asthma.<\/p>\n

Higher health costs; less predictable seasons for farmers.\u00a0 And all of that will hit low-income, black and brown communities the hardest.<\/p>\n

The last part\u2019s important.\u00a0 The costs of the climate crisis fall disproportionately on the people in our society who can least afford it.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also true that addressing climate change offers one of the most powerful tools we have to fight inequity and systemic racism.\u00a0 The way we respond can help break the cycle.<\/p>\n

These are all reasons why we must succeed in preventing a climate catastrophe.\u00a0 But the world has already fallen behind on the targets we set six years ago with the Paris Agreement.\u00a0 And we now know those targets didn\u2019t go far enough to begin with.\u00a0 Today, the science is unequivocal:\u00a0 We need to keep the Earth\u2019s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid catastrophe.<\/p>\n

America has a key role to play in hitting that mark.\u00a0 We only have around 4 percent of the world\u2019s population, but we contribute nearly 15 percent of global emissions.\u00a0 That makes us the world\u2019s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.\u00a0 If we do our part at home, we can make a significant contribution to addressing this crisis.<\/p>\n

But that won\u2019t be enough.\u00a0 Even if the United States gets to net zero emissions tomorrow, we\u2019ll lose the fight against climate change if we can\u2019t address the more than 85 percent of emissions coming from the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Coming up short will have major repercussions for our national security.<\/p>\n

Pick a security challenge that affects the United States.\u00a0 Climate change is likely to make it worse.<\/p>\n

Climate change exacerbates existing conflicts and increases the chances of new ones \u2013 particularly in countries where governments are weak and resources are scarce.\u00a0 Of the 20 countries the Red Cross considers most vulnerable to climate change, 12 are already experiencing armed conflicts.\u00a0 As essential resources like water dwindle, as governments struggle to meet the needs of growing populations, we\u2019ll see more suffering and more strife.<\/p>\n

Climate change can also create new theaters of conflict.\u00a0 In February, a Russian gas tanker sailed through the Arctic\u2019s Northern Sea Route for the first time ever.\u00a0 Until recently, that route was only passable a few weeks each year.\u00a0 But with the Arctic warming at twice the rate of the rest of the global average, that period is getting much longer.\u00a0 Russia is exploiting this change to try to exert control over new spaces.\u00a0 It is modernizing its bases in the Arctic and building new ones, including one just 300 miles from Alaska.\u00a0 China is increasing its presence in the Arctic, too.<\/p>\n

Climate change can also be a driver of migration.\u00a0 There were 13 Atlantic hurricanes in 2020 \u2013 the highest number on record.\u00a0 Central America was hit especially hard.\u00a0 Storms destroyed the homes and livelihoods of 6.8 million people in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and wiped out hundreds of thousands of acres of crops, leading to a massive rise in hunger.\u00a0 Months after the storms, entire villages are still subsumed in mud, and people are carving off pieces of their buried homes to sell as scrap metal.<\/p>\n

When disasters strike people who are already living in poverty and insecurity, it can often be the final straw, pushing them to abandon their communities in search of a better place to live.\u00a0 For many Central Americans, that means trying to make it to the United States \u2013 even when we say repeatedly that the border is closed, and even though the journey comes with tremendous hardships, especially for women and girls who face heightened risk of sexual violence.<\/p>\n

All of these challenges are placing greater demands on our military.\u00a0 The U.S. Naval Academy is only five miles north of here, and Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world, about 200 miles to the south.\u00a0 Both bases \u2013 and the critical missions they support \u2013 face an imminent threat from climate change.\u00a0 And these are just two of the dozens of military facilities that climate change puts at risk.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, our military often responds to natural disasters, which are getting more frequent and more destructive.\u00a0 In January, Secretary of Defense Austin announced that the military would immediately integrate climate change into its planning and operations and how it assesses risk.\u00a0 As Secretary Austin put it, and I quote, \u201cThere is little about what the department does to defend the American people that is not affected by climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having said all that, it would be a mistake to think about climate only through the prism of threats.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why.\u00a0 Every country on the planet has to do two things \u2013 reduce emissions and prepare for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.\u00a0 American innovation and industry can be at the forefront of both.\u00a0 This is what President Biden means when he says, and I quote, \u201cWhen I think of climate change, I think jobs,\u201d end quote.<\/p>\n

To give you a sense of scale, consider that, by 2040, the world will face a $4.6 trillion infrastructure gap.\u00a0 The United States has a big stake in how that infrastructure is built.\u00a0 Not only whether it creates opportunities for American workers and businesses, but also whether it\u2019s green and sustainable, and done in a way that\u2019s transparent; respects workers\u2019 rights; gives the local population a say; and doesn\u2019t mire developing countries and communities in debt.\u00a0 That\u2019s an opportunity for us.<\/p>\n

Or consider the massive investments countries are making in clean energy.\u00a0 Renewables are now the cheapest source of bulk electricity in countries that contain two-thirds of the world\u2019s population.\u00a0 And the global renewable energy market is projected to be $2.15 trillion by 2025.\u00a0 That\u2019s over 35 times the size of the current market for renewables in the United States.\u00a0 Already, solar and wind technicians are among the fastest growing jobs in America.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to imagine the United States winning the long-term strategic competition with China if we cannot lead the renewable energy revolution.\u00a0 Right now, we\u2019re falling behind.\u00a0 China is the largest producer and exporter of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles.\u00a0 It holds nearly a third of the world\u2019s renewable energy patents.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t catch up, America will miss the chance to shape the world\u2019s climate future in a way that reflects our interests and values, and we\u2019ll lose out on countless jobs for the American people.<\/p>\n

Now, let me be clear:\u00a0 Goal number one of our climate policy is preventing catastrophe.\u00a0 We\u2019re rooting for every country, business, and community to get better at cutting emissions and building resilience.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have a stake in America developing these innovations and exporting them to the world.\u00a0 And it doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t want to shape the way countries reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change.\u00a0 So how can we do that?<\/p>\n

We can start with leading by the power of our example.\u00a0 As we work to meet our ambitious climate targets, the following core principles will guide our approach.<\/p>\n

We will significantly increase our investment in clean energy research and development, because it\u2019s how we will catalyze breakthroughs that benefit American communities and create American jobs.<\/p>\n

In all our climate investments, we will aim not only to promote growth, but also equity.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be inclusive, focusing on providing Americans across the country \u2013 and from a range of communities \u2013 with good-paying jobs, and the opportunity to join a union.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll empower youth, not just because they will bear more of the consequences of climate change, but also because of the urgency, ingenuity, and leadership they\u2019ve demonstrated in confronting this crisis.<\/p>\n

We will enlist states, cities, businesses large and small, civil society, and other coalitions as partners and models.\u00a0 Others have been doing groundbreaking work in this field for a long time.\u00a0 We\u2019ll lift them up and share best practices.<\/p>\n

And this is important:\u00a0 We will be mindful that for all the opportunities offered by the unavoidable shift to clean energy, not every American worker will win out in the near term.\u00a0 Some livelihoods and communities that relied on old industries will be hit hard.\u00a0 We won\u2019t leave those Americans behind.\u00a0 We\u2019ll provide our fellow Americans with pathways to new, sustainable livelihoods, and support as they navigate this transition.<\/p>\n

Right after taking office, President Biden created the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization.\u00a0 It\u2019s working across the government to identify and deliver federal resources to revitalize the local economics of coal, oil, gas, and power plant communities, and ensure benefits and protections for workers in those same communities.\u00a0 And as part of his American Jobs Plan, the President proposed a $16 billion upfront investment to put hundreds of thousands of people to work in union jobs plugging abandoned oil and gas wells and mines.<\/p>\n

If we can stay true to these principles while meeting our climate targets, we\u2019ll demonstrate a model that other countries will want to partner with and follow.<\/p>\n

With those values in mind, here\u2019s how the State Department will leverage our foreign policy to deliver for the American people on climate.<\/p>\n

First, we\u2019ll put the climate crisis at the center of our foreign policy and national security, as President Biden instructed us to do in his first week in office.\u00a0 That means taking into account how every bilateral and multilateral engagement \u2013 every policy decision \u2013 will impact our goal of putting the world on a safer, more sustainable path.\u00a0 It also means ensuring our diplomats have the training and skills to elevate climate in our relationships around the globe.<\/p>\n

Now, what it does not mean is treating other countries\u2019 progress on climate as a chip they can use to excuse bad behavior in other areas that are important to our national security.\u00a0 The Biden-Harris Administration is united on this: Climate is not a trading card \u2013 it\u2019s our future.<\/p>\n

I am particularly delighted that President Biden named my friend John Kerry to serve as our Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.\u00a0 No one is more experienced or effective in convincing other countries to raise their climate ambitions.\u00a0 We need the whole world focused on taking action now, and through this decade, to promote the achievement of net-zero global emissions by 2050.<\/p>\n

I am with John 100 percent in this effort.\u00a0 The leaders of our other U.S. Government agencies, they are as well.\u00a0 And his leadership will be indispensable in weaving climate into the fabric of everything we do at the State Department.<\/p>\n

Second, as other countries step up, the State Department will mobilize resources, institutional know-how, technical expertise from across our government, the private sector, NGOs, and research universities to help them.\u00a0 In the last few weeks alone, we announced new funding for clean energy entrepreneurship and more efficient renewable energy markets in Bangladesh and to help India\u2019s small businesses invest in solar energy.\u00a0 These investments move us toward our climate goals and bring energy access to people who had never had it before.<\/p>\n

Third, we\u2019ll emphasize assisting the countries being hit hardest by climate change, most of which lack the resources and capacity to handle its destabilizing impacts.\u00a0 Now, that includes Small Island Developing States, a number of which are literally sinking into the ocean because of rising sea levels.\u00a0 In 2020, only 3 percent of climate finance was directed toward these countries.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to fix that.\u00a0 To that end, America is deploying experts and technology to vulnerable islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean to improve early warning and response systems, and we\u2019re investing in building resilience in areas like infrastructure and agriculture.<\/p>\n

Fourth, our embassies will lead on the ground.\u00a0 They already are \u2013 helping governments design and implement climate-smart policies, while looking for ways to draw on the unique strengths of America\u2019s public and private sectors.\u00a0 Just last month, the U.S. company Sun Africa broke ground on two massive solar energy facilities in Angola, including the 144-megawatt Biopio site.\u00a0 When finished, it will be the biggest solar facility in all of Sub-Saharan Africa.\u00a0 The project will provide enough power for 265,000 homes and eliminate 440,000 gallons of carbon-intensive diesel fuel that Angola imports and burns each year.\u00a0 Plus, this project is expected to use around $150 million in solar energy equipment exported from the United States.\u00a0 This effort is good for the Angolan people, good for climate, and good for American jobs and business.\u00a0 And it simply wouldn\u2019t have happened if not for the efforts of our diplomats.<\/p>\n

Fifth, we will use all the tools in our kit to make U.S. clean energy innovators more competitive in the global market.\u00a0 That includes leveraging instruments like the financing provided by the Export-Import Bank to incentivize renewable energy exports; the proposed expansion of tax credits for clean energy generation and storage in the President\u2019s American Jobs Plan; and the Administration\u2019s ongoing efforts to level the global playing field for American-made products and services.<\/p>\n

Support like these can have an outsized impact, particularly because the current market for renewables is only a small fraction of the market to come.\u00a0 Beyond solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, there are more than 40 additional categories of clean energy, including clean hydrogen, carbon capture, and next-generation renewables like enhanced geothermal energy.\u00a0 No one has staked a dominant claim to these promising technologies yet.\u00a0 And, with a lift from our domestic and foreign policy, every one of them can be American-led and American-made.<\/p>\n

A Massachusetts start-up called Boston Metal shows how this can be done.\u00a0 The company pioneered a new process that can produce steel and other metals more efficiently and at lower costs, while also producing less pollution.\u00a0 Most of the U.S. steel sector already uses clean technologies, but the company\u2019s CEO, a Brazilian immigrant, saw an untapped market in countries like Brazil, where Boston Metal is partnering with industry to replace older, dirtier ways of making steel.\u00a0 This company is creating good-paying, quality jobs in the United States.\u00a0 Steel is a $2.5 trillion global industry, and many of the world\u2019s producers will need to make a similar leap.\u00a0 America can help them do it.<\/p>\n

Sixth, our diplomats will challenge the practices of countries whose action \u2013 or inaction \u2013 is setting the world back.\u00a0 When countries continue to rely on coal for a significant amount of their energy, or invest in new coal factories, or allow for massive deforestation, they will hear from the United States and our partners about how harmful these actions are.<\/p>\n

And finally, we\u2019ll seize every chance we get to raise these issues with our allies and partners, and through multilateral institutions.\u00a0 At NATO, for example, there is consensus that we need to adapt our military readiness for the inevitability of climate change and reduce the reliance of the Allies\u2019 forces on fossil fuels, which is both a vulnerability and a major source of pollution.\u00a0 I know that Secretary General Stoltenberg, who has called climate a \u201cthreat multiplier,\u201d is as serious about addressing climate change as we are.<\/p>\n

We will convey a strong message to the meeting of the G7 next month, whose members produce a quarter of the world\u2019s emissions.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll also represent the United States at next month\u2019s ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council, where I\u2019ll reaffirm America\u2019s commitment to meeting our climate goals and encourage other Arctic nations to do the same.<\/p>\n

All of these efforts, at home and abroad, will allow us to lead from a position of strength when the world comes together in November for the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

I spend a great deal of my time focused on threats to America\u2019s security and interests \u2013 aggressive actions by Russia or China, the spread of COVID-19, the challenges facing democracies.\u00a0 But an equally grave threat to the American people \u2013 and an existential one over the long term \u2013 can be seen right here, on the Chesapeake Bay, where the costs of climate change are already manifesting themselves.<\/p>\n

Yet from this very same place, we can also see examples of American innovation and leadership that \u2013 if taken to scale \u2013 can prevent a climate catastrophe and benefit American workers and communities.<\/p>\n

Maryland has committed to cutting the state\u2019s emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, and to 100 percent clean energy by 2040.\u00a0 Maryland also offers farmers strong incentives to plant cover crops, which help trap carbon dioxide.\u00a0 More than 40 percent of the state\u2019s farmers are now using these crops.\u00a0 And countless others are doing their part to prevent climate change on the Bay \u2013 and often benefiting American jobs in the process.<\/p>\n

Just consider the Merrill Center building right here, from which I speak.\u00a0 When it opened 20 years ago, it was the first LEED Platinum Building in the entire world, a U.S. standard for energy efficiency that has since become the gold standard globally.\u00a0 Around a third of its energy comes from solar power.\u00a0 It uses 80 percent less water than most buildings its size.\u00a0 Nearly half of the building \u2013 the building materials, excuse me, came from within 300 miles.\u00a0 Its design saves $50,000 a year in energy costs alone.<\/p>\n

A newer facility the Chesapeake Bay Foundation built in 2014 is even more efficient, reflecting advances in American design and manufacturing.\u00a0 It produces more energy than it consumes, and all the water it uses is captured rainwater.\u00a0 Its solar panels come from Oregon, its wind turbines from Oklahoma.\u00a0 These solar panels and wind turbines are American-designed, American-owned, American-built.\u00a0 And people from around the world have come to study these buildings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s changes like these that will help preserve the Bay as we know it, and all of the communities and livelihoods that it sustains.<\/p>\n

This is the blueprint for American leadership on climate.\u00a0 Bringing together innovation from government and the private sector, communities and organizations.\u00a0 Not just meeting targets for controlling climate change, but doing it in a way that\u2019s open, that\u2019s a good investment, that creates opportunities for American workers.<\/p>\n

The climate crisis we face is profound.\u00a0 The consequences of not meeting it would be cataclysmic.\u00a0 But if we lead by the power of our example \u2013 if\u00a0 we use our foreign policy not only to get other countries to commit to the changes necessary, but to make America their partner in implementing those changes \u2013 we can turn the greatest challenge in generations into the greatest opportunity for generations to come.<\/p>\n

Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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