| By Jennifer A. Dlouhy Much of Pakistan was still submerged last month as John Kerry, the top US climate diplomat, met with officials from the flooded country inside a cramped room at New York's Plaza Hotel. Pakistan's foreign affairs minister soberly described the devastation: a third of the country underwater, 600,000 pregnant women displaced, residents ducking inside their boats to avoid perilously close power lines. The unprecedented monsoon rains that started in spring have left more than 1,700 dead and driven some 33 million people from their homes. "It's truly sort of apocalyptic," Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told Kerry. Bilawal emphasized the country's commitment to a green transition but noted the obvious: Because Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions today, "even if tomorrow we all run on solar and wind, that is not going to solve much of the problem." Kerry honed in on a growing power source for the country. "You have a fair amount of coal, don't you?" he asked. Pakistan's carbon footprint might be negligible now, but, Kerry said, "the problem is" that its coal generation is "going up." Changing the subject, he addressed the stuffy room. "Is it possible to get a little air in here?" Kerry asked, setting off a scramble to adjust a thermostat. An official with the US Agency for Aid and Development jumped in to highlight US investments in global disaster resilience. The exchange illustrated the conundrum Kerry and other negotiators at the UN summit will face in Egypt next month, as they wrestle with questions of how to address the human devastation from the impacts of climate change (known as "loss and damage"), spurred by centuries of unchecked fossil fuel use. Pakistan and other vulnerable countries are responsible for little of the planet-warming pollution that's caused global temperatures to rise, but they are suffering the consequences. And Kerry, who represents the country historically responsible for more greenhouse gas releases than any other, wanted to keep the focus not on compensation but on emission-cutting progress.  John Kerry Photographer: Linh Pham/Bloomberg Kerry will arrive at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, which begins Nov. 6, with a mixed US record on climate. The country just enacted an enormous law that invests hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy and conservation. Yet the US also has failed to pony up billions of dollars for other countries, having long resisted calls for a new program to compensate vulnerable nations bearing the brunt of global warming — issues that will take center stage at the conference. Kerry proved uniquely adept at meeting the challenge of international climate work in 2021 — a role that had him criss-crossing the globe in pursuit of greater ambition, cajoling countries to commit to bigger carbon cuts and enticing Wall Street to spend more on green projects. But this year is marked by the tough slog of climate diplomacy, presenting a fresh challenge for the seasoned politician. COP27 is unfolding amid global upheaval that is testing nations' emissions-cutting mettle. The world is still not on track to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C, a key threshold for averting the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. Brazil, Mexico and other top-emitting countries have yet to strengthen their commitments for carbon dioxide cuts by 2030 — a critical window for action. And others are backsliding on their pledges, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a global energy crunch spur countries to embrace more coal and natural gas. It's "an atmosphere that challenges the momentum we had," Kerry said in an October interview with Bloomberg Green in his office at the State Department. "There's a little bit of anxiety in the air."  Kerry greets attendees at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 21. Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Kerry represented Massachusetts in the Senate for 28 years, made a failed bid for the presidency in 2004 and spent four years as the Secretary of State. Climate change was woven into every one of those roles. Kerry trekked to Rio de Janeiro for the first UN summit on the issue in 1992 — and attended every pivotal session since. He also helped spearhead a failed push for a carbon cap-and-trade program in 2010. Though Kerry has made no decision to leave his current role, many observers expect him to step down after the conference in Egypt. (A spokeswoman said Kerry has no plans to depart and is focused solely on COP27.) Last year, Kerry helped rally other world leaders around the 1.5C goal, which had gotten a nod in the 2015 Paris accord but had not yet become a guiding force for many countries. In meetings with foreign ministers, Kerry drew on scientific reports and pointed to natural disasters to argue immediate action was needed and that meeting the Paris agreement commitment to cap global temperatures "well below 2 degrees" wasn't good enough. He helped "make these kind of theoretical commitments much more real and urgent," said Dan Feldman, the former chief of staff for Kerry's climate office. Kerry also encouraged efforts on methane, with the US and EU recruiting more than 120 countries into a global pledge to pare emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. And he lobbied CEOs directly to join the First Movers Coalition, a group of Fortune 500 companies that are using purchase commitments as demand guarantees to accelerate the creation of low-carbon products in aviation fuels, cement and steel. These days, Kerry is again keeping much of his focus on the private sector, holding a flurry of meetings and phone calls with Wall Street and philanthropic groups in a quest for a big investment package that can help fill a gap in missing federal government funding, years after the US and other rich countries pledged $100 billion in annual climate finance for developing nations. (The promise has never been fulfilled.) "It continues to be a burr under the saddle" that "our Congress has not seen its way to putting more money into this topic," Kerry said. "We need to be able to show that there really is some finance and some finance structure, even if it's a pilot project that can change the equation." The pursuit of more money — and greater carbon-cutting ambition — plays to Kerry's strengths. But this year's summit will force Kerry to grapple with what Bilawal raised in the Plaza Hotel meeting. "He was very much a man for the moment last year in many ways," said David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute's climate initiative. "Although his laser focus on cutting emissions is still essential, I don't know if the current moment is as well suited because right now we're in a different place where some key questions like climate impacts, what to do about them and finance to deal with them, are not where he's tended to put his greatest energy and effort."  Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub wants to sell you "net-zero oil." Do you buy it? In this week's episode of Zero, Akshat Rathi sits down with Hollub to talk carbon capture, greenwashing and fugitive emissions. Listen to the episode and subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, Google or Stitcher to get new episodes every Thursday. Tensions around those thornier issues erupted into full view during a New York Times-hosted discussion last month when Farhana Yamin, an environmental lawyer who helped author the Paris accord, asked Kerry to say when the US would actually put money into addressing the "loss and damage" other countries are experiencing because of climate change. Kerry argued the most pressing spending priority is climate mitigation and adaptation. But he also seemed to admit defeat: "You tell me the government in the world that has trillions of dollars, because that's what it costs," Kerry said, his voice rising. He added he would not be "feeling guilty" about the lapse. The US has long resisted the creation of a new program that could deliver technical assistance and funding to countries struggling with disasters, but Kerry's comments, less than two months before the UN negotiations, seemed only to underscore those differences. He's adopted a more conciliatory tone since. "Words are not going to quash a level of anger that has grown through the years, and none of us should pretend or believe that they could, Kerry said at an Oct. 26 Financial Times event. "This anger is deep," and "I understand it," Kerry said, adding: "The levels of damage to the less developed world are extraordinary." Read more to learn about Kerry's behind-the-scenes negotiations with China over climate change and trade. Like getting the Green Daily? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to breaking news on climate and energy, data-driven reporting and graphics and Bloomberg Green magazine. | 
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