The Paris Agreement also signaled to entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors that the renewable-energy sector would remain a growth industry, Kerry said, and he called on his audience to help build it.

“Brilliant minds trained at MIT are behind some of the most transformative innovations in history,” he said, suggesting that the Institute’s students and entrepreneurs could help mitigate climate change while developing “the greatest economic opportunity the world has ever known.”

Solar energy costs have dropped by 62 percent since 2009, Kerry noted, while the number of jobs in the U.S. solar industry has grown by over 20 percent in each of the last three years. He cited a World Bank study stating that every $1 million of investment in renewable energy yields as many jobs as the same amount of investment in fossil fuels.

This means that “market-based forces are already beginning to shift” in the direction of clean energy, Kerry said, while adding that as a matter of governance, “very few public policy choices present as much upside.”

Before his speech, Kerry met with MIT president L. Rafael Reif and discussed MIT climate initiatives. Kerry and deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken also met for a roundtable discussion with about 20 MIT faculty members and industry and government experts.

In his public remarks, Kerry, the son of a diplomat, called the position of secretary of state “about the best job anybody could imagine” and said he would remain engaged and active as a private citizen on many civic matters, including climate change.

“What we do right now, today, matters,” Kerry told the audience. “We don’t get a second chance on this one.”