Kerry targets climate change denying world leaders at Cork conference

The former US Secretary of State has lashed out at world leaders who lie about the climate crisis and dismiss the scientific evidence.

John Kerry, a former US presidential candidate who played a key role in talks which led to the signing of the 2016 Paris Agreement on greenhouse gas emissions targets, said the world and its climate don’t have the time or space to deal with "presidents and prime ministers" who deny the truth about climate change.

Speaking at the Our Oceans Wealth summit in Cork, Mr Kerry said despite oceans and species being pushed to the brink, the crisis can be solved and the tide can be turned but governments must face up to the truth and act faster.

“Today we have public leaders who not only try to avoid the truth, but who try to alter it - through thousands of lies,” he said.

Mr Kerry, who is leading a global effort to deliver more Marine Protected Areas, said he is more militant now than when he returned from fighting in the Vietnam war to become an outspoken campaigner against it.

He told delegates that solving climate change is not a matter of whether we do - it's a matter of whether we decide to do it.

"It's a matter of political will. I believe we can do this. My frustration is that we are not doing what we know we can do. And time is not on our side," he said.

"We are changing the chemistry of the oceans faster than it has been changed in the last 50m years.

"We can't protect oceans without solving the problem of climate change and we can't solve that without protecting the oceans - they go hand-in-hand.

"There is no blue economy if we don't protect our oceans. Done right, it doesn't hurt jobs, it is jobs.

"We know the enemy - the enemy is man-made. If it's man-made it can be 'man-solved'."

He urged people to organise to hold politicians and policy-makers to account, and to help combat the "powerful forces" pushing against the required change.

More than 30 heads of state and ministers, UN representatives and ambassadors from island nations around the world attended the summit, sponsored by PwC.

Among the attendees were former Irish President Mary Robinson, the UN Special Envoy for the Oceans, Peter Thomson, the Prime Minister of St Lucia Allen Chastanet, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa, Ms Fiame Naomi, Foreign Minister of the Maldives Mr Abdulla Shahid and the Maltese Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Carmelo Abela.

Simon Coveney, welcoming former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, to Cork this morning. Secretary Kerry is the keynote speaker at the Our Oceans Wealth Summit organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Marine Institute.

It was also attended by the political representatives of over 30 island states most at risk from the climate crisis, including Grenada, Barbados, Belize, Fiji, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago.

Her Excellency, Ms Ngedikes Olai Uludong, the permanent representative of island state Palau to the UN, said her country's national marine sanctuary will come into effect in seven months to protect some 500,000 sq km of ocean in a bid to safeguard biodiversity and marine tourism - the largest part of its ocean economy.

"Sharks turtles reefs are all worth more alive than dead and over-exploitation today will undermine economic activity of tomorrow," she said.

HE Elizabeth Thompson, the permanent representative of Barbados to the UN, said her government, which oversees a landmass of 32sq km but some 183,436 sq km of oceans, has just appointed a ministry of the blue economy to help foster a sustainable blue economy.