KUWAIT CITY: A long-awaited climate change plan by President Barack Obama shows that the United States is serious on the problem and that other nations should do more, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
Kerry, who as a senator led a previous failed effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, said the proposal being laid out by Obama "will send ripples internationally" about the US commitment to fighting climate change.
"Decisive action at home empowers us to make more progress internationally on a shared challenge," Kerry said in a statement issued as he visited major oil producer Kuwait.
"Climate change cannot be solved by one nation alone. The global community must step up. I raise this issue everywhere I travel, in every meeting," he said.
The United States has long faced international criticism for inaction on climate change, with China and India resenting calls by the wealthier nation for international mandates on cutting emissions.
Kerry spoke at length on climate change during a Sunday visit to India, saying record hot temperatures and increasingly severe natural disasters showed that the problem was "screaming" for action.
Obama and President Xi Jinping of China, which has surpassed the United States as the world's top emitter of the gases blamed for climate change, also agreed this month to phase out carbon-intensive hydrofluorocarbons found in air conditioners and refrigerators.
Kerry, a former presidential candidate and senator from Massachusetts, tried for months in 2009-2010 to win support for legislation that would impose the nation's first mandatory restrictions on carbon emissions.
The plan failed, with lawmakers, mostly from the rival Republican Party, saying such action would be too expensive and raising doubts about the science behind climate change.
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