John Kerry, President Biden’s top climate czar, will leave office later this winter to focus on his boss’s re-election campaign.
The 80-year-old former Secretary of State and former Democratic presidential candidate, who has been criticized for his lavish jet-setting while preaching energy austerity for the masses, informed his staff of his impending departure after speaking with Biden on Wednesday, Axios reported. Saturday. .
The administration has not chosen a replacement for Kerry, who has been Biden’s top climate diplomat since 2021, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Kerry has not taken an official role in Biden’s re-election bid, but “plans to help tell the climate story in the context of Biden’s campaign,” according to Axios.
The Democrat’s long political career, which included a 28-year stint as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and an unsuccessful run for the White House against George W. Bush in 2004, was marred by persistent accusations of climate hypocrisy.
John Kerry will step away from the Biden administration, his team said Saturday. AP
When Biden named Kerry to his custom-built US Presidential Special Envoy for Climate in 2021, critics criticized him for his habitual use of a private jet, a Gulfstream Aerospace aircraft registered to a company owned by his wife Teresa. Heinz-Kerry.
During his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry’s campaign made 60 payments to his wife’s company, totaling $273,171, for use of the plane, and in 2013, executive branch staff financial disclosures to then-Secretary of State showed that he owned “more than $1,000,001” in company property. assets through his wife, Fox News reported.
Kerry continued to use the carbon-spewing plane during his first 18 months as climate czar, racking up 48 trips that lasted more than 60 hours and releasing an estimated 715,886 pounds (325 metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to flight logs. .
Kerry has received criticism for his lavish jet-setting while preaching energy austerity for the masses; He informed his staff of his impending departure after speaking with Biden on Wednesday. REUTERS
Experts say luxury corporate jets can emit up to 40 times more carbon per passenger than commercial airliners.
His jet-setting trips to rub shoulders with star-studded climate confabs in Egypt, Dubai, Scotland, Japan and the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, drew relentless ridicule from Republicans.
“Gas is always greener when you burn fossil fuels in the name of saving the planet,” Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst told the Post in June, when she introduced a bill that would rein in greenhouse gas emissions from Kerry and others. Biden administration officials.
Kerry has not taken an official role in Biden’s re-election bid, but “plans to help tell the climate story in the context of Biden’s campaign,” according to Axios. fake images
“Based on the very actions of these Biden bureaucrats, who emit greenhouse gases as they travel around the world, American-made fossil fuels are not the enemy,” Ernst said. “The double standard is clear and Americans have had enough of all this talk.”
Kerry’s close relationship with China – particularly with his diplomatic counterpart, Xie Zhenhua – has also come under fire, with critics repeatedly accusing him of downplaying Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang to gain climate concessions. .
As President Obama’s secretary of state, Kerry was instrumental in negotiating the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the controversial climate agreement that Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, abandoned in 2017.
When Biden named Kerry to his custom-built US Special Presidential Climate Envoy in 2021, critics criticized him for his habitual use of a private jet. AP
In 2021, he refused to respond to a reporter who asked whether Kerry had pressed Chinese leaders over the alleged use of forced labor to build solar panels in Xinjiang.
“We’re honest about the differences… but that’s not my path here,” Kerry said.
“That’s… my job is to be the climate guy and stay focused on trying to advance the climate agenda.”
During his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry’s campaign made 60 payments to his wife’s company, totaling $273,171, for use of the plane, and in 2013 financial filings showed he owned “more than $1,000,001.” ” in company assets. AP
In December, Kerry helped negotiate the UAE Consensus, an international agreement aimed at weaning the world off fossil fuels while funneling huge amounts of cash to poor nations for the “losses and damages” of the switch. climate.
“No more coal-fired power plants should be allowed anywhere in the world,” Kerry said last year at the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, claiming that “they are killing people every day.”
The Post has contacted the White House and Kerry’s office.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn