Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry tells NPR the U.S., China and other major emitters are not doing enough to stem climate change.

President Biden is trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52percent from 2005 levels by 2030. It’s an ambitious target that requires changing much of the market. Renewable energy would have to make up half of their U.S. energy supply from approximately 21 percent currently. Electric cars make up about 2% of sales today — by 2030, at least half, potentially all, new car sales would have to be electric, based on estimates. Many industrial manufacturing facilities would want to use technology that have not been developed. It’s part of Biden’s effort to acquire the U.S. on track to get to the aims of their 2015 Paris Climate Deal to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. in the agreement however Biden has formally rejoined.

John Kerry is currently Biden’s special envoy for climate, even a location that entails meeting with countries around the world about efforts to stem emissions. He calls the danger of climate change “existential.” “Which means life and death. And the question is, how are we behaving like it is? And the answer is no,” Kerry said in an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered. This interview was edited for clarity and length and contains extended Web-only replies. Interview Highlights Is this a matter of take to the moon and if you miss, at least you’ll land among the stars? No, I believe it’s achievable. And I think people who have really studied this, analyzed it and consider it for a very long duration of time feel it is achievable.

The automobile market is shifting towards electric. I mean, you know, Joe Biden did not create the worth of Tesla as the most precious auto business on the planet. The market did this. Along with the market did it because that is where people are shifting. The amount of change that you are speaking about in the timeframe that’s required is something we’ve never observed in human history. Allow me to put it to you this way. How many politicians, the number of scientists, just how many people have stood up and stated, “That is poisonous to us on this world”? Existential. That means life and death. And the question is, how are we behaving like it is? And the reply is no. So why are younger generation people so mad? Are they standing up and demonstrating and asking adults to take adult responsibility to transfer our countries in the right direction? Since the scientists are telling them that. They learn about that in high school and college. They also read. They know what’s happening. They know we’re experiencing the latest day in human history, the hottest week, the latest month, the year. And we observe the results. Fires, floods, mudslides, drought, and crop disturbance , ice melting in the Arctic, conduct the list. Climate change is still viewed as a partisan issue in the U.S. Republicans and Democrats could take over Congress next year. So why should international leaders view this as a trustworthy commitment from the United States when GOP leaders have not purchased in? For 2 reasons. No. 1, even when Donald Trump was president of the United States and then pulled from this agreement, 37 governors in the United States, Republican and Democrats alike, stood up and said, “We’re still in.” And says, those 37 countries, have passed on renewable portfolio legislation. So at the country level, people are moving because they are aware that it’s better to their own state. It’s much better, better delivery of electricity to their state, and it’s the way it’s going to proceed. The second part of the response: Masses of funds, trillions of dollars, are going to move in the energy economy, that’s the largest market the world has ever observed and will rise today. Multiple double-digit trillions of dollars of market. And no politician could come together and inform people banks, or even those asset managers or those investors or people venture capitalists or those companies, the companies that are doing so, they know this is where the economy’s going to be later on. If the 2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan the president has put forth doesn’t pass the Senate, does that goal to cut emissions in half by 2030 effectively die with the invoice? It does not die, but it certainly takes a blow, a severe one. But the companies I have talked about are going to proceed in this direction no matter what. I mean, if you take a close take a look at the biggest companies in the united states, these people are all pushing to get this done because they know that the planet is going to be much better off and their businesses are going to be much better off if we do this. This is a real challenge for each of us, also I think people are waking up for it all across the world. Why is it that you think 40 heads of state, including President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, Prime Minister Modi of all India, huge populations come and say, “We must do so”? Do they know something that some of these opponents of this do not know or are not ready to admit? I mean, the only leader in the entire world that saw fit to pull from the Paris agreement was Donald Trump. Nonetheless, it’s really easy to make commitments and we have not seen states follow through on these commitments. That is accurate. They’re doing things; they’re not doing enough. There are not many states that are doing enough. Most countries aren’t. And of those 20 countries that equal 81 percent of all the emissions, they’re the essential ones that have to do much more. And we’re among them. We’re 15% of all the world’s emissions. China is 30 percent. Does China have to perform more? Absolutely. All of the 20 have to do much more.