John Kerry: Relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide 'dangerous'
Relying on technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is "dangerous" and cause for "alarm", John Kerry has warned. The US president's special climate envoy said in an interview that new technologies may not prevent the world from crossing "tipping points," key temperature thresholds that could trigger a cascade of unstoppable physical effects. "Some scientists are suggesting that it's possible that there could be an overshoot [of global temperatures above the 1.5°C threshold above pre-industrial levels that governments are aiming for] and you could go back, so to speak - you've got the technology and stuff, that allow you to come back,” Kerry told the Guardian. "The danger with this, which worries me and motivates me the most, is that according to the science and the best scientists in the world, we may be at or beyond several tipping points that we've been warning about for some time," he said. "That's the danger, the irreversibility." He called on governments to roll out renewable energy faster, along with related technologies such as electric vehicles. These are already available for large-scale deployment and could prevent the world from reaching the high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide that would cause temperatures to exceed the 1.5°C threshold. "Part of the challenge we're facing now is that the countries that have the technology are not necessarily deploying it at the pace they should be," he said. “Fatih Birol [the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency] has been making it very clear for some time that all you need to meet the 2030% target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 worldwide is the deployment of renewable energy sources at the current state of technology, and that's not happening."