http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=291073
Kerry Testifies to Foreign Relations Committee on Bali Climate Change Conference
Kerry Reports that World Expects Shared Responsibility, Greater US Leadership
WASHINGTON DC – Senator John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing “International Climate Change Negotiations: Bali and the Path Toward a Post-2012 Climate Treaty.” Kerry lead the Senate delegation to Bali and was the only member of Congress to attend the talks.
Below is Kerry’s Opening Statement as Prepared for Delivery:
Thank you, Senator Menendez, for your leadership on this issue – both in your years in the House, and today in the Senate through your Chairmanship of this Committee.
I very much appreciate this opportunity to report back to you all on my visit to the international climate change negotiations in Bali in December, where 187 nations gathered to hammer out a new global mandate – and a roadmap to make it meaningful. And I believe that, as we’ve all seen and read, although there were powerful forces trying to scuttle an agreement, in the end grassroots energy triumphed, within the obvious limits—and we made real progress.
Because of votes here in the Senate, as you know, our Senate CODEL was reduced to – well, me. But I did have the pleasure of spending about 40 hours in the air for a day and a half of meetings in Bali, and I thought it was important for the Senate’s view to be represented, however briefly. I thought we had to deliver a simple message, in person: there is real movement on this issue in America, and no matter what the world thinks of the last eight years of stalemate, America is ready to lead again.
So where are we after Bali? I think that despite the seemingly reluctant participation of the Administration, the “Bali roadmap” does mark real progress toward a post-Kyoto vision. It lays out a process for future negotiations, recognizes the importance of the four building blocks to fighting climate change—mitigation, adaptation, financing, and technology—and most importantly shows us a path to reach a final agreement in Copenhagen in 2009. It’s up to us to make that path lead to a higher ground, and, as the Chairman knows, there is no time to waste.
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And in Boston the day before.