US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is stepping down from the administration of US President Joe Biden in the coming weeks, two people familiar with his plans said.
Kerry, a former US senator and former US secretary of state, was tapped shortly after Biden’s November 2020 election to take on the new role created specifically to fight climate change on behalf of the administration on the global stage.
Kerry’s departure plans were first reported on Saturday by Axios.
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Kerry was one of the leading drafters of the 2015 Paris climate agreement and came into the role with significant experience abroad, as secretary of state during the administration of former US president Barack Obama and from nearly three decades as a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Biden’s decision to tap Kerry for the post was seen as one way the incoming president was making good on his campaign pledge to battle climate change in a more forceful and visible manner than in previous administrations.
“The climate crisis is a universal threat to humankind and we all have a responsibility to deal with it as rapidly as we can,” Kerry said in a visit to Beijing last summer, when he met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng (韓正) on climate matters.
At international climate summits, Kerry always kept a breakneck pace, going from one meeting to another, with world leaders, major business figures and scientists, all interspersed with one press conference after another — to share what he just learned, announce an initiative, or say a few words as civil groups announced their own plans to help combat climate change, thus lending his credibility and weight.
In the span of an hour, at one meeting Kerry would talk in detail about the need for oil companies to drastically reduce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, then go to another gathering and detail his latest idea to help pay for green energy transition in developing countries and then, some minutes later, go into a long explanation of illegal fishing worldwide while attending an event with leaders of Pacific Island nations.
“John Kerry’s tireless work to deliver global progress on the climate crisis has been heroic,” former US vice president Al Gore, who has focused primarily on climate in his post-public office life, said in a statement on Saturday. “He has approached this challenge with bold vision, resolute determination, and the urgency that this crisis demands. For that the U.S. and the whole world owe him a huge debt of gratitude.”
While his gravitas has made him a central climate figure around the world, Kerry also has strong critics who argue US’ climate policies do not amount to leadership in fighting global warming. The Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate law in US history, is pumping billions of dollars into renewable energies. However, many facets of the law emphasize domestic production, thus leading other nations to complain that the law is protectionist and detrimental to their own green industries.
For years, the US opposed the creation of a “loss and damage” fund that would see rich nations contribute billions of dollars to help developing countries, often hit hard by extreme weather events driven by climate change. During COP27 in Egypt in 2022, the fund was approved, as the US and other rich countries relented and supported it.
However, Kerry is always quick to say the fund is not about “reparations” or “compensation,” and so far the US has promised only modest funding for it.
Kerry represented Massachusetts for 28 years in the US Senate and was also the Democratic US presidential nominee in 2004.
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