Kerry's comments came in an interview with The Associated Press on one of the most crucial topics in the fight to slow global warming: the argument from oil and gas producers that they will soon have technology in place to extract the climate-damaging gases that make fossil fuels the main culprit in climate change, allowing companies to keep pumping crude and natural gas worry-free.
"What they're banking on is that they're going to be able to do the emissions capture," Kerry said of oil and gas companies. He ticked off the stages of operations that would involve. "Technologies capture CO2 emissions at source or directly from the air," Saudi state oil giant Aramco says, describing the carbon then being stored safely underground or turned into "useful products."
"I just think it's foolish to think that we can keep pumping the stuff, CO2, methane, into the atmosphere, and that at some point we'll be able to capture it," Schlissel said. Going into November's climate talks, al-Jaber is calling for a phase-out of `'fossil fuel emissions," leaving it ambiguous whether he means a ramping up of technology or is open to some production cuts.