MR FREEDMAN: Why is the U.S. opposing language anywhere in the agreement that says, quote, unquote, “shall implement policies to meet Paris targets?” Is their view that the State Department is just concerned about triggering a Senate ratification requirement?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, the frank and simple answer is that certain legal – certain terms have legal impact and certain legal impacts have political impact, and certain political impact can kill the agreement. Our feeling is that this agreement as it is is one that is really – I mean, here’s the – here’s why Paris is so important. I think everybody knows that the Paris agreement, because it’s not setting emissions reductions levels that are mandatory to every country and every country agrees to live by one standard, everybody understands that this is a step on a very critical role for the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 years.

We’re not going to do it all in one fell swoop here in Paris, but I am more than convinced – I mean, as I say to you, I’ve been at this a long time, having started in the voluntary outcomes of Rio and been there in the mandatory outcomes of Kyoto, and I led the efforts on the floor of the United States Senate to try to deal with Kyoto, and we ran into an absolute buzz saw of resistance based on the fact that people were able to argue, “Well, why should we be the only ones reducing? If other countries don’t reduce, it won’t make any difference. So we curb our economy and nobody else does anything to theirs, and we’re the only ones hurt, and in the end we’re all hurt because it doesn’t work.”

So the importance of Paris is that everybody sets goals. I will tell you, too, when I became – I became Secretary of State in February – February 1st of 2013. One of my first objectives was to address this issue, and realizing what I saw in Copenhagen and what I saw previously of this G-77 bloc resistance to movement and this hard differentiation which prevented us from being realistic, I knew it was critical to get China into the game. So within two months of my being sworn in, I was in China. And I had previously called the state councilor, Yang Jiechi, and asked him, “We need to start a working group between China and the United States, and we need together, as the two largest emitters in the world, stand up and make it clear to the world that Paris matters and that we need to have more countries put in their intended reductions.”

Well, at first there was sort of, “Woah, what’s this all about?” I’ll just refer you that today, China announced today in Beijing they have a air quality alert. From now till Thursday, their public schools are closed, their transportation shut down – public, and there’s no barbecuing allowed in open air. China understood they have a problem and they need to deal with it. So we agreed on a working group. And within three months of the working group being formed, we came up with five different sectors on which we were going to cooperate together in order to try to see if we could announce our targets together.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, one year later President Barack Obama stood in Beijing with President Xi and he was able to announce our targets, China announced their targets and goals, and since that day we have been joined by this 182 other countries that are going to reduce their targets – agreed voluntarily. But who would have imagined? I didn’t imagine when I went to China we were going to have 184 nations embrace this goal and this urgency and this target and come to Paris seriously. This is a whole new paradigm in Paris. And what I am absolutely convinced of is, with Bill Gates and other entrepreneurial investors and people around the world, with the commitment that we have now to double our R&D, with the effort we have with the solar allowance that Prime Minister Modi is initiating – you put all of this energy together, and I don’t mean that as a pun, but we are going to have an incredible amount of investment and outcome over the course of the next five, ten years.

And I don’t, frankly, look to government to solve this problem over the course of the next few years. It’s not going to happen. I look to the private sector. I look to businesses that are going to say: Our consumers are going to demand that we’re environmentally responsible. I look to business, to the MITs and the Caltechs and the Chinese universities and innovators and researchers. And we’re doing joint ventures with them, by the way.

It’s the private sector, the next Elon Musk or Steve Jobs is going to find a way to do battery storage for alternative and renewable energy, or we’re going to find a way to burn energy, or maybe this dream of fusion is going to be accelerated and actually have a commercial viability. I don’t know the answer, but I have absolute confidence in the ability of capital to move where the signal of the marketplace says “go” after Paris.

And if 184 plus nations sign on to a durable agreement with a review and accountability and transparency here in Paris, you watch the world begin to change. And already mayors all across the world are coming together to do things at the local level that they can order by administrative order. Already you’re seeing fleet purchases of automobiles change. Buildings codes are changing.

President Obama has put in place one of the most ambitious national climate action plans in the world. We’ve doubled our car efficiency and truck – we’re requiring – our coal-fired power plants have to begin to phase out. We have new standards for new power plants. We have an incredible array of steps we are taking to meet this challenge. And I think Paris’ importance is that even without the fixed number and the legal shell, we are going to see an enormous amount of movement without creating political obstacles that prevent us from being able to send that signal. (Applause.)

MR FREEDMAN: Now, I’ll close with this quick question. On a scale of 1 to 10, how hopeful are you? How helpful are you? How hopeful are you that we’re going to get a deal relatively by deadline to allow reporters to go home and everybody – no. (Laughter.) How hopeful are you that we’re going to get a deal here that is effective and meets your level of ambition?

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, if I’m really helpful, I’ll be even more hopeful. And I’m going to try to be both. I don’t want to express levels or grades of 1 to 10. I am an optimist, or I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. I think the stage is set. I think the attitude is currently there. I think there are players who would like to try to scale it back and hold it back a little. My hope is the momentum that we are building and good negotiating over the next days will overcome those hurdles, and that towards the end of the week we’ll be able to come to an agreement. I believe we can.

But – and I think it will happen relatively. You say “relatively.” Relatively is always within a span. I want to finish on Friday, as does Foreign Minister Fabius, and I think most people would like to see it done on time. But these things have a way of seeing the clock stop at midnight and you drift into Saturday, because there’s always some legal detail, some word that has to be massaged. But I think we’re going to get to know whether we can get there or not within the reasonable period that’s been set. And I am so hopeful that Paris will be a truly historic moment when we will ratify what people all over the world are coming to understand, and that is that this is happening. It’s happening now; it’s happening faster than scientists predicted it would; and it’s happening to greater degrees than scientists predicted it would.

And we need, as responsible leaders, to take account of science; not some cockamamie ideological hypothetical, but science. And we need to make clear that those members of the Flat Earth Society are on the wrong side of history. We are going to make Paris the demarcation point where we begin to get the job done to save the planet, period. (Cheers.)