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Speaking at the UN climate change conference in Paris on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced an $800 million climate pledge by 2020 from the U.S. and slammed deniers of global warming, stating, “Make no mistake: If, as a global community, we refuse to rise to this challenge—if we continue to allow calculated obstruction to derail the urgency of this moment—we will be liable for a collective moral failure of historic consequence.”

Amid the release of the COP21 climate agreement draft text (pdf), which advocacy group Oil Change International said harbored clear signals of influence by the fossil fuel industry, environmental groups said Kerry’s speech exposes a uniquely American problem in the fight against climate change—the rejection of innovative clean energy solutions and blockading of meaningful progress in curbing irreparable global warming.

“Secretary Kerry came to Paris to inject some urgency into the closing hours of the negotiations, which is surely needed. We welcome his call for an ambitious and enduring agreement with regular, transparent reviews of countries’ climate actions,” said Kyle Ash, senior legislative representative at Greenpeace. “But the U.S. is still missing a clear long term goal and the acknowledgement that a future free of the fear of climate change requires full decarbonization of the economy and the transition to 100% renewables by 2050.”

Kerry slammed deniers as “so out of touch with science that they believe rising sea levels don’t matter, because in their view, the extra water will just spill over the sides of a flat Earth.”

But his bold rhetoric only worked to reflect the weakness of the U.S. government’s pledge, activists said. Ash continued, “The force of his words is not matched by the U.S. financial commitments. The $800 million he announced, doubling the current commitment, is a positive step but it’s just a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed. It is clear that the U.S. administration is a climate leader when it comes to rhetoric but sadly not when it comes to bold action.”

Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica added, “Countries from around the world had high ambitions for the United States to pursue a climate agreement principled on fair shares, justice and ambitious reductions, based on the principles of common but differentiated responsibility. To date, the United States has not delivered on these ambitions and looks like it we will further undermine these basic tenets through the rest of the talks.”

“While I appreciate the doubling of U.S. grants for adaptation to more than $800 million by 2020, it is still well below the U.S.’s fair share,” Pica said.

Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said, “Responding to the climate crisis demands an urgency and an acceptance of scientific and human realities that we have yet to see in the United States’ participation here in Paris.”