MARRAKECH: Over 300 U.S. businesses have signed a statement calling on President-elect Donald Trump to support the Paris Agreement on climate change — including General Mills, eBay, Intel, Unilever, and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies.
Their statement reads "implementing the Paris Agreement will enable and encourage businesses and investors to turn the billions of dollars in existing low-carbon investments into the trillions of dollars the world needs to bring clean energy and prosperity to all."
The statement is addressed to Trump, President Barack Obama and members of Congress. It calls on elected U.S. officials to maintain the country's policy and financial commitments to lower carbon emissions.
Lara Birkes, chief sustainability officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, says "the Paris Agreement was a vital step forward, but its power is in our collective action."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says failing to fight climate change would be a "moral failure, a betrayal of devastating consequences."
With 2016 on track to be the hottest year on record, Kerry said the impacts of global warming are so evident that "at some point, even the strongest skeptic has to acknowledge that something disturbing is happening."
Kerry was speaking Wednesday at a U.N. climate conference in Marrakech. He also says that he doesn't think U.S. emissions reduction pledges "can or will be reversed" because of the market mechanisms in play.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called global warming a "hoax."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says an "overwhelming majority" of Americans know that climate change is happening and want the U.S. to honor its commitments under the Paris climate agreement.
Speaking Wednesday at a U.N. climate conference in Marrakech, Kerry praised the Paris deal as a framework that is "built to last."
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called global warming a "hoax" and pledged during the campaign to "cancel" the Paris deal aimed at fighting climate change.
Kerry, however, says he doesn't think U.S. emissions reduction pledges "can or will be reversed" because of the market mechanisms in play.