John Kerry: US has to get rid of ‘crazy’ oil and gas subsidies
Power Play
POLITICO
4.2 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
As negotiators from nearly 200 countries enter the final week of climate talks at COP28 in Dubai, all eyes will be on the big players and who moves first.
In this week’s special edition of Power Play from Dubai, host Anne McElvoy talks to one of the most influential figures in the talks — John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate. A close ally of President Joe Biden and veteran of climate negotiations over several decades, the former secretary of state has the ear of this year's controversial host — COP president Sultan Al-Jaber from the UAE.
Kerry also has a domestic audience in mind. He tells Power Play: "The subsidies are crazy and we have them still in the United States. President Biden has said we've gotta get rid of these subsidies. But again ... you have to legislate to do that and we've been pretty gridlocked in our country for a period of time."
To reflect on the interview and look ahead to the finale of this year's COP, Anne is joined by POLITICO climate and energy reporter Zack Colman.
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| 0:00.0 | Today's episode is presented by Nova Vax. |
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| 0:25.0 | of vaccines worldwide. |
| 0:27.0 | Learn more at W. W. Novavax.com. |
| 0:30.0 | It's the Big Enchilada event all around me at COP28 in Dubai for political leaders, heads of state, |
| 0:42.0 | chief executives of big business and environmental NGOs. |
| 0:46.0 | A staggering 100,000 delegates and milling around a sprawling campus, |
| 0:51.0 | officially designated as UN territory in a corner of the Gulf. |
| 0:56.7 | So much of the talk leading up to COP and during the first week here has been about the |
| 1:01.0 | controversy surrounding the host, the UAE, and the COP |
| 1:04.8 | president himself Sultan Al-Jabir, the CEO of the country's main oil and gas company. |
| 1:10.4 | When it emerged that he had said there was no science behind |
| 1:14.5 | ending fossil fuels in order to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 |
| 1:19.2 | degrees Celsius, it confirmed many climate campaigners worst fears and he quickly changed his tune. |
| 1:26.0 | And let me just clarify where I stand on the science. |
| 1:30.0 | I hope this time gets gets picked up because what I'm saying today you have access to all of my public |
| 1:38.6 | Engagements. It's there. I'm not gonna say anything new. It's the science and my respect to the science and my |
| 1:46.8 | passion about the science and it's about my conviction to the science that have enabled |
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