Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned that devastating storms like Hurricane Milton will become increasingly common unless more is done to “win this battle” against climate change.
It comes just two weeks after the Gulf Coast was hit by Hurricane Helene which left at least 225 people dead.
Hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, former US climate envoy Mr Kerry said that the world was “really on a precipice”.
Speaking at the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Global Summit in Perth (Boorloo), Western Australia, he said: “Milton has transitioned from a normal hurricane type that was moving at about 125 miles an hour.
“The measure is of a rapid increase whether or not it increases by about 35 miles per hour. Well, in the case of Milton it increased by 95 miles per hour.
“And what you are seeing in all these storms around the world, which have to impact you in the travel industry and will increasingly, much more, because it’s predictable.”
As Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Mr Kerry played a key role in negotiating the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement which set out a common strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Then, as Joe Biden’s special presidential envoy for climate, Mr Kerry helped broker a deal for countries to move away from using fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai.
But the 80-year-old former senator warned that countries were not “following through with the vigour we need to be able to accomplish our goal.”
He said: “The goal is to hold it [global temperature rises] to 1.5 degrees. So if we did everything we’ve said we were going to do, folks, we could actually win this battle.
“The problem is we’re not doing everything we said we’d do.”
Mr Kerry said the “critical components” to responding to the crisis were government policies, the “engagement of people”, finance for investment in new green technologies and their deployment.
WTTC’s annual Global Summit brings together senior figures from the private sector with ministers and heads of state to discuss issues affecting the travel and tourism industry.
