Washington (AFP) - Former US secretary of state John Kerry said Sunday that he had formed a cross-party, celebrity-studded coalition to take on the cause of climate change and confront it "like a war."
The
initiative's launch coincides with the opening Monday of the COP25
international climate talks in Madrid, where the US administration of Donald
Trump will be represented only by a low-level delegation.
Trump has
begun the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement signed
by nearly every other country, calling global warming a "hoax."
In
contrast, Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" that climate change poses
"an international security issue" requiring the equivalent of a
wartime mobilization.
Kerry said
his new group World War Zero included admirals and generals as well as
celebrities including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and rock legend Sting.
Kerry, a
Democrat, appeared Sunday with another member, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor
and Republican former governor of California.
Without
specifically referring to Trump or the COP25 talks, Kerry said that "no
country is getting the job done."
"Things
are getting worse, not better. So we have our unlikely allies coming together
here... to treat this like a war."
The United
Nations warned last week that barring an immediate, dramatic decline in fossil
fuel emissions, the world will be unable to avert climate disaster.
The US is
the world's second largest polluter, after China, and carbon emissions from the
two countries are growing, not declining.
Some
American conservatives, including Trump, question established climate science
and say severe curbs on industrial emissions could inflict severe economic
harm.
Schwarzenegger
disputed that conclusion, saying California had provided "perfect proof
you can protect the environment and economy at the same time" with the
development of "green" jobs.
The Kerry
group is planning to hold town meetings across the US -- including states seen
as key to next year's presidential election -- with the goal of reaching
millions of Americans and persuading climate skeptics.
It will not
advocate any specific climate policies.
The group
includes Henry Paulson, a former Treasury secretary under George W. Bush, and
John Kasich, a former Republican governor of Ohio.
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