美国国务院
发言人办公室
2021年11月1日
美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯
在第26届联合国气候变化大会美国中心启动仪式上发表讲话
 
2021年11月1日
英国格拉斯哥
布林肯国务卿：下午好。非常高兴同你们大家一起出席第26届联合国气候变化大会（COP26）美国中心（U.S. Center）正式启动仪式。我谨此感谢将这一切付诸实现的整个美国政府中的每一个人。
在今后两周，我们将主办数十场对话，将数百名人士汇集在格拉斯哥（Glasgow）这里，还有数千人将在线参与，以增强我们应对气候危机的举措。
正如你们在那段视频中所看到的，努力应对气候危机不是美国政府中任何单一机构或部门的责任，因为气候变化不仅威胁我们的经济、我们的基础设施或我们的国家安全；而且威胁上述所有这些领域以及更多的领域。
在过去的一周里，我们得到了有关这一事实的两个非常有力的警示。首先是美国国家情报主任发布的一份全面报告。它阐明了气候变化正在助长地区性不稳定，而且正在给从粮食和水资源的不安全性直到移民模式的人类生活的几乎每个方面造成压力。我可以从我本人与世界各地的同仁的对话中证实，这些正日益成为他们在自己的国家中每天都要应对的日常挑战。而且在我们国家，我们也看到气候变化的种种影响，包括一些地方的旱灾和其他一些地方的水灾，更猛烈的风暴，时间更长、损失更严重的野生生物季节——对不起，是野火季节。
最近得到的第二个警示是联合国（United Nations）的年度《排放差距报告》（Emissions Gap Report），该报告讨论了气候变化对全世界最弱势的人口和社区造成的日益严重的影响。我们的话筒有问题？它明确指出摆在我们面前的要务：如果我们希望将全球升温限制在1.5摄氏度并制止一场气候灾难，就必须在这个决定性的10年同时增强我们的雄心和我们的行动。
多年来，各行各业的美国人——州长、市长、活动人士和工商界领袖——一直在紧密协同全世界的朋友从事减少这些排放以及建设抗御力的艰巨的日常工作。然后，拜登总统在1月20日就职后几小时内，重新加入了《巴黎协议》（Paris Agreement）。此后不久，他召集包括全世界17个最大的温室气体排放国在内的40位世界领导人举行了气候问题领导人峰会（Leaders Summit on Climate）。他在峰会上宣布了美国的一项有魄力的新承诺：到2030年将排放幅度降低50%至52%。这个目标使我们朝着到2050年实现净零排放迈进。
总统气候变化事务特使约翰·克里（John Kerry）将更多地介绍我们如何在格拉斯哥这里阐明我们实现这一目标的途径。
拜登总统还指示他的团队将气候行动纳入美国政府的各项工作中，不仅是在我们的国内政策上——全国气候顾问吉娜·麦卡锡（Gina McCarthy）一会儿将谈这点，而且也在我们的外交政策和国家安全方面。在很大程度上由于有约翰·克里的领导和他卓越的团队，国务院早已开始在这样做。我们设置了专注气候问题的新的外交全职岗位，在每个地区局均有，也设在驻海外关键地方的使团，包括在印度和巴西。我们正在寻求资金，对驻扎世界各地的外交官进行有关气候外交的教育和培训。
气候外交会在COP26这里继续。克里特使将更详细地阐述我们希望在这里取得的成果，眼下我只想说，我们正在与我们的盟友合作，并且正在取得巨大进展。仅在过去几个月，我们已经动员各国为战胜气候危机作出了有史以来最强有力和最具体的承诺。我们大幅度缩小了雄心目标上的差距。有更多国家正在制定更有魄力的目标，并且更接近所需要的程度。但我们仍有工作要做。
仍然有太多国家没有加强力量，我们在离开格拉斯哥时不应不指出这个事实，也不应不明确表示我们要在今后几个月和几年里大力加强气候雄心目标和气候行动的意愿。这是一个决定性的十年。我们必须充分利用它。
当然，这不是一个我们能单靠国家政府的行动予以解决的问题。我们需要有公民社会继续领导前进，提供专业能力，教育公众，建立起向我们这样的决策者问责的联盟。我们需要州和地方政府继续制定和实施有创意的实地行动方案。我们需要公司进行能让我们实现零排放的投资。那将是明智的和正确的经营举措。绿色经济是未来，现在作出正确投资的公司将在今后的岁月里得到回报。
在未来个把周内，美国中心将汇集来自各界的领袖——政府、商企、公民社会——联合力量采取气候行动。我们将涉及的议题包括，我们正在打造的合作关系，旨在加强易受影响社区的抵御能力；我们启动的旨在保护热带森林的行动计划；以及确保让我们正在进行的向清洁能源转型的努力是建立在平等的基础上，而不是仅使富人受益。
你们今天在座的许多人在你们的积极行动和领导工作中强调，气候行动的根本含义不是牺牲。它意味着机会。它意味着创新。它意味着繁荣。它意味着正义。它意味着要建设一个让我们大家都感到骄傲的未来，一个让我们的子孙后代应该拥有的未来。因此，我对与你们所有人共同参与这场斗争，在未来岁月里共同发展我们在苏格兰这里取得的进展，感到非常荣幸。
现在，我尤其荣幸和高兴地介绍一位多年致力于气候斗争，并为提高全球对这一问题的重视付出极大努力的人士。在这个关键时刻，拜登总统将召集全球力量投入这项事业的使命托付给他，我们所有人都因有他站出来承担这一职责而更加受益。女士们、先生们，有请约翰·克里。（掌声）
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欲查看原稿内容:  https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-at-the-cop26-u-s-center-opening-event/

REMARKS
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
GLASGOW, UNITED KINGDOM
NOVEMBER 1, 2021
SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good afternoon.  It is a great pleasure to join all of you for what is the official launch of the U.S. Center here at COP26.  And I just want to thank everyone across the U.S. Government who made all of this happen.
Over the next two weeks, we will be hosting dozens of conversations, bringing together hundreds of people here in Glasgow, and thousands more online to step up our response to the climate crisis.
As you saw from that video, tackling the climate crisis isn’t the responsibility of any single agency or department in the U.S. Government because climate change doesn’t only threaten our economy, our infrastructure, or our national security; it’s a threat to all of them and more.
In the past week, we have received two very powerful reminders of that fact.  The first was a comprehensive report from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence.  It laid out the evidence of how climate change is driving regional instability and straining nearly every aspect of human life, from food and water insecurity to migration patterns.  I can attest from my own conversations with colleagues around the world that these are increasingly daily struggles that they are dealing with in their countries.  And in our country, we also see the effects of climate change including droughts in some places, floods in others, more intense storms, longer and more damaging wildlife seasons – wildfire seasons, excuse me.
The second recent reminder was the United Nations annual Emissions Gap Report which discussed the mounting effects of climate change on the most vulnerable people and communities around the world.  We have a microphone issue?  It made clear the imperative that we have before us to strengthen both our ambition and our action in this decisive decade if we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and prevent a climate catastrophe.
For years, Americans from all walks of life – governors, mayors, activists, business leaders – have been doing the difficult daily work of reducing these emissions and building resilience in close coordination with friends around the world.  Then within hours of taking office on January 20th, President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement.  Soon after that, he convened 40 world leaders, including the world’s 17 largest greenhouse gas emitters, for the Leaders Summit on Climate.  There, he announced a bold new commitment from the United States: a 50 to 52 percent reduction in emissions by 2030.  That target puts us on course to reach net zero by 2050.
And Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will talk more about how here in Glasgow we will lay out our path to get to that goal.
President Biden also told his team to integrate climate action into everything we do across the U.S. Government not just in our domestic policy, which National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy will speak to shortly, but also in our foreign policy, in our national security.  This process is well underway at the State Department thanks in large part to the leadership of John Kerry and his outstanding team.  We’ve created new Foreign Service positions dedicated full-time to climate issues, one in every regional bureau and in critical posts overseas, including India and Brazil.  And we’re seeking funding to educate and train officers around the world on climate diplomacy.
Here at COP26, that climate diplomacy will continue.  Special Envoy Kerry will lay out in greater detail what we hope to accomplish here, but for now, let me just say that we’re working with our allies and making tremendous progress.  In just the past few months, we’ve mobilized the strongest and most concrete commitments ever put forward by countries to combat the climate crisis.  We substantially narrowed the ambition gap.  More countries are setting bolder goals, and they’re closer to where we need them to be.  But we still have work to do.
Too many countries still have not stepped up, and we shouldn’t leave Glasgow without acknowledging that fact and without making clear our intention to strengthen climate ambition and climate action substantially in the months and years ahead.  This is a decisive decade.  We’ve got to make it count.
Of course, this is not an issue that we can solve through national government action alone.  We need civil society to continue leading the way, providing expertise, educating the public, building coalitions that hold policymakers like us to account.  We need state and local governments to continue to develop and implement creative initiatives on the ground.  And we need companies to make the investments that will get us to net zero emissions.  That’s the smart thing for business to do and the right thing.  The green economy is the future, and companies that make the right investments now will reap the rewards for years to come.
Over the next couple of weeks, the U.S. Center will bring together leaders from across these sectors – government, business, civil society – to join forces on climate action.  We’ll address topics like the partnerships we’re building to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities; the initiatives we’ve launched to protect tropical forests; the efforts that we’re making to make sure the transition to the clean energy future is rooted in equity so it’s not just the wealthy who benefit.
Many of you here today have emphasized in your activism and leadership that climate action is not about sacrifice.  It’s about opportunity.  It’s about innovation.  It’s about prosperity.  It’s about justice.  And it’s about building a future that we can all be proud of and the future that our children and grandchildren deserve.  So I’m very honored to be in this fight with all of you, to work together to build on our progress here in Scotland in the months and years ahead.
And now it’s a particular privilege and pleasure to introduce someone who had dedicated years to the climate fight and who has done so much to elevate this issue around the world.  At this critical moment, President Biden trusted him to rally the world around this cause, and we’re all better off because he stepped up to take on this responsibility.  Ladies and gentlemen, John Kerry.  (Applause.)