Davos: Calls to Increase Investment in Climate Protection

John Kerry, US Special Envoy for Climate, walks to the Davos Congress Center, the venue of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023, in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
John Kerry, US Special Envoy for Climate, walks to the Davos Congress Center, the venue of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023, in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
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Davos: Calls to Increase Investment in Climate Protection

John Kerry, US Special Envoy for Climate, walks to the Davos Congress Center, the venue of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023, in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
John Kerry, US Special Envoy for Climate, walks to the Davos Congress Center, the venue of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023, in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry has praised Germany's climate policy, expressing his confidence that Berlin would be able to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

"We can hit 1.5 [degrees warming]," said Kerry, adding that: "We are not on track to do it now, and it is not absolutely clear that we will get on track. Globally, we are heading to 2.5, somewhere in the high twos right now. And we really must turn that around."

During the "Keep the Pace on Climate" panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the former Secretary of State expressed optimism about Germany achieving its climate goals to limit the rise in global temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees.

"Germany can achieve this,” he said.

However, Kerry warned that the world is heading towards global warming of 2.5 degrees or more, noting that investments in climate protection must be doubled.

He expressed his belief that combating climate change can only succeed if governments create incentives for the private sector to invest in environmentally friendly technologies.

"The private sector is absolutely key to our ability to be able to win this battle."

The US IRA, signed into law in August 2022, unlocks significant climate financing and establishes major incentives for the private sector and investors to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors.

He noted that the law provides billions of dollars in investments in climate protection and the social sphere.

However, the European Commission believes that the law harmed European Union companies and raised fears of moving production centers to the United States and losing jobs.

Meanwhile, environmental activist Greta Thunberg said it was "absurd" that people take seriously the ideas related to climate change that was put forward in Davos.

Thunberg said that people should listen to those on the frontline in the climate crisis.

In 2020, Thunberg attended the World Economic Forum and had verbal confrontations with former US President Donald Trump.

"We must panic" because "the house is on fire,” she has said.

A few days ago, Thunberg attended a protest in Germany on the coal mine expansion in Luetzerath, west of the country.

She was arrested for a few hours on the sidelines of that protest, according to a police source.



US Proposes Ukraine UN Text Omitting Mention of Occupied Territory, Say Diplomats

 Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Proposes Ukraine UN Text Omitting Mention of Occupied Territory, Say Diplomats

 Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Residents Yekaterina Tkachenko, 75, and Maria Seryogova, 49, walk past ruins of buildings as they come to visit their apartments destroyed in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Pisky (Peski), a Russian controlled region of Ukraine, February 14, 2025. (Reuters)

The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN members to approve the “simple, historic” resolution.

Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.

It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies—countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.

The Ukrainian-European text stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war this year, noting several initiatives to that end, while also blaming Russia for the invasion and committing to Kyiv’s “territorial integrity.”

The text also repeats the UN General Assembly’s previous demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Those votes had wide support, with around 140 of the 193 member states voting in favor.

Washington’s text, seen by AFP, calls for a “swift end to the conflict” without mentioning Kyiv’s territorial integrity and was welcomed by Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, as “a good move” but stressed that it did not address the “roots” of the conflict.

“The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace,” Rubio said in a statement Friday, without commenting in detail on the contents of the proposed resolution.

In a break with past resolutions proposed and supported by Washington, the latest draft, produced ahead of a General Assembly meeting Monday to coincide with the third anniversary of the war, does not criticize Moscow.

Instead, the 65-word text begins by “mourning the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia–Ukraine conflict.”

It then continues by “reiterating” that the United Nations’ purpose is the maintenance of “international peace and security”—without singling out Moscow as the source of the conflict.

France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Riviere, the EU’s only permanent member of the council, said he had no comment “for the moment.”

“A stripped-down text of this type that does not condemn Russian aggression or explicitly reference Ukraine’s territorial integrity looks like a betrayal of Kyiv and a jab at the EU, but also a show of disdain for core principles of international law,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

“I think even a lot of states that favor an early end to the war will worry that the US is ignoring core elements of the UN Charter.”