There he was this weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry, touting the Paris agreement on global emissions reduction he negotiated for the United States; the same John Kerry who negotiated the nuclear deal with Iran.
Master negotiator John Kerry touted his Paris agreement on carbon emissions reduction this weekend. (nypost.com)
Understandably, Kerry spent most of his time defending the lack of any provision for enforcing the “pledged” reductions by the 185 countries, saying that “If there had been a penalty, we wouldn’t have gotten agreement. So it has to be voluntary. We got the best deal we could.”
The agreement is similar to the nuclear deal with Iran in which Iran is permitted to inspect itself for compliance. In the Paris agreement, countries will have mandatory reporting on progress every five years. Kerry calls it “a serious form of enforcement and compliance.” I call it a periodic excuse to meet in Paris.
Just how serious is the United States in cutting carbon emissions and promoting jobs?
Point One: It was Kerry who advised the president to kill the Keystone XL pipeline even though it was his State Department that said carbon emissions from the pipeline would not have a “significant” impact on overall greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have also shown that movement by pipeline produces less emissions, and is cheaper and safer than transporting by rail or truck.
Point Two: Kerry says the Paris agreement “sends a big powerful message to the marketplace. A lot of jobs (that’s in Obama talk) are being created.” Yet, thousands of direct and indirect jobs, not to mention the associated economic growth, were lost when Keystone was killed.
Chalk up another negotiation loss to the Obama-Kerry team.
