U.S. Rejoins Climate Fight With 'Humility and Ambition,' Kerry Says at WEF

US climate envoy John Kerry said Wednesday that Washington was rejoining the international climate effort with "humility and ambition" and was not only revving up its own efforts to reduce oil, gas and coal pollution, but that it intends to push everyone in the world to do more, too. Speaking via video link during a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Kerry stressed US President Joe Biden's commitment to climate action. Kerry’s diplomatic efforts match the fast pace of domestic climate directives by the week-old Biden administration, which created the job Kerry now holds. At 77, Kerry is working to make a success out of the global climate accord that he helped negotiate in Paris as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state - and that he then saw rejected by President Donald Trump, who also spurned all other Obama-era legacy efforts to wean the US and global economies off climate-damaging fossil fuels. "We know we've wasted four years in which we were inexcusably absent," said Kerry. "But we re-enter with ambition, knowing that at the COP in Glasgow in November, all nations have to raise our sights together or we all fail together." Success for Kerry is hardly assured. At home, he faces pushback from the oil and gas industry and hears concerns that jobs will be lost. Internationally, there's uncertainty about whether Biden's climate commitments can survive the United States' intensely divided politics, let alone the next presidential transition. But Kerry insisted that Biden has made the fight against climate change "a pillar of his campaign and now a centrepiece of his presidency." Organizers of the World Economic Forum, are holding a virtual gathering this week, after COVID-19 cancelled the forum's annual in-person event of Davos, Switzerland, with world leaders participating online. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake