Climate change world’s largest weapon of mass destruction: Kerry

JAKARTA — Climate change may be the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction and urgent global action is needed to combat it, United States Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday, comparing those who deny its existence or question its causes to people who insist the Earth is flat.

Arguing that everyone and every country must take responsibility and act immediately on climate change, Mr Kerry said big companies and special interests should not be allowed to hijack the climate debate.

“The science is unequivocal and those who refuse to believe it are simply burying their heads in the sand. We don’t have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society,” he told an audience gathered at the United States Embassy-run American Center in a shopping mall in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Mr Kerry outlined a litany of recent weather disasters, particularly flooding and typhoons in Asia, such as last year’s Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and their impact on commerce, agriculture, fishing and daily living conditions for billions of people.

“We’ve seen here in Asia how extreme weather events can disrupt world trade,” he said. “In today’s globalised economy, the entire world feels it.”

Aides said Mr Kerry had chosen Indonesia for the first of what is to be a series of speeches on the topic this year partly because, as an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, it is particularly at risk from rising sea levels.

“Because of climate change, it’s no secret that today Indonesia is ... one of the most vulnerable countries on Earth,” he said. “This city, this country, this region, is really on the front lines of climate change.”

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the entire way of life that you live and love is at risk,” he said. He added: “In a sense, climate change can now be considered the world’s largest weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even, the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.”

The Secretary of State’s public push takes place against the backdrop of a negotiation among nearly 200 nations about a possible new global treaty on climate change that is scheduled to be agreed on next year. The treaty will also address greenhouse gas emissions, which trap solar heat in the atmosphere and contribute to the Earth’s rising temperatures, from 2020.

The speech came a day after Mr Kerry won an agreement with China to cooperate more closely with the US on combating climate change. American officials hope the deal will help encourage other nations, including developing countries such as Indonesia and India, to follow suit. China and the US are the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Kerry was in Indonesia on the last leg of a three-nation tour of Asia that started in South Korea and then China. After leaving Indonesia today, he will visit Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Kerry toured Jakarta’s massive Istiqlal Mosque, one of the largest in the world, to pay his respects to Indonesia’s Muslim-majority population. AGENCIES