US Secretary of State John Kerry will on Sunday issue a clarion call for the world to do to more to combat climate change, warning the planet is being pushed to "a tipping point of no return".
In his keynote speech, the top US diplomat will highlight that Asian nations, many of them low-lying, are particularly under threat from rising sea levels.
"Kerry will call on the global community, not just countries, but individual citizens around the world, to do more now because addressing the threat of climate change will require a global solution," a senior State Department official said.
The US Secretary of State, who has long been a passionate advocate of the need to protect the environment, arrived in Indonesia late Saturday for bilateral meetings.
On Sunday he first toured a mosque to pay tribute to the country with the world's largest Muslim population.
Later he was to deliver his speech before Indonesian students and professors at a US-run centre in Jakarta, which will be beamed live to other hubs on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
Kerry will make "the compelling and undeniable scientific case of this growing challenge, that is pushing the planet towards a tipping point of no return", the State Department official said, asking not to be named.
Global warming was threatening not just the environment, but also "the economy and our way of life", the official said.
He will also "underscore the ways in which Asia is particularly impacted", she added.
Along with the United States, Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, is one of the world's biggest carbon emitters because of rampant deforestation.
Kerry announced Saturday in Beijing that China and the United States had agreed to join forces to share information on their efforts to combat climate change, ahead of 2015 UN-led efforts to set emission reduction goals for 2020.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will on Sunday issue a clarion call for the world to do to more to combat climate change, warning the planet is being pushed to “a tipping point of no return”.
In his keynote speech, the top US diplomat will highlight that Asian nations, many of them low-lying, are particularly under threat from rising sea levels.
“Kerry will call on the global community, not just countries, but individual citizens around the world, to do more now because addressing the threat of climate change will require a global solution,” a senior State Department official said.
The US Secretary of State, who has long been a passionate advocate of the need to protect the environment, arrived in Indonesia late Saturday for bilateral meetings.
On Sunday he first toured a mosque to pay tribute to the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.
Later he was to deliver his speech before Indonesian students and professors at a US-run centre in Jakarta, which will be beamed live to other hubs on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
Kerry will make “the compelling and undeniable scientific case of this growing challenge, that is pushing the planet towards a tipping point of no return”, the State Department official said, asking not to be named.
Global warming was threatening not just the environment, but also “the economy and our way of life”, the official said.
He will also “underscore the ways in which Asia is particularly impacted”, she added.
Along with the United States, Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, is one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters because of rampant deforestation.
Kerry announced Saturday in Beijing that China and the United States had agreed to join forces to share information on their efforts to combat climate change, ahead of 2015 UN-led efforts to set emission reduction goals for 2020.
