John Kerry, President-elect Joe Biden's selection for presidential envoy for climate. Source: npr.org.
John Kerry, the former secretary of state under President Barack Obama, has been selected by President-elect Joe Biden to be the presidential envoy for climate, a new office created as a cabinet-level position. Mr. Kerry’s appointment marks a definitive shift in United States’ climate policy. Mr. Kerry stated in a tweet, “America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is,” committing himself to firm climate action, unlike President Trump.
Mr. Kerry’s appointment to President-elect Biden’s cabinet indicates the incoming administration’s acknowledgment of the severity of the climate crisis, promoting its discussion to the highest echelons of government.
Mr. Kerry faces an uphill battle, as US climate policy has been significantly lacking since the Obama era. Mr. Kerry is expected to persuade other nations to drastically cut down their carbon emissions by the year 2030, an extremely important task but also one that could prove difficult. According to former State Department official Nicholas Burns, U.S. “credibility on climate change has plummeted over the last four years,” likely harming the US’s ability to spur international climate action. Paul Bodnar, the managing director of the Rocky Mountain Institute, emphasized the need for decisive action instead of simple talk, “[Mr. Kerry’s] job is to basically execute a pivot from 30 years of negotiations to a decade of aggressive action.”
Mr. Kerry has had a long history in climate policy; in 2015, he was an integral part of the negotiations for the Paris Climate Accord and was in attendance at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, when Al Gore and a team of U.S. delegates formed the Foundation for U.S. Climate Policy. In November of 2019, Mr. Kerry assembled a star-studded group of climate activists, including politicians such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and celebrities such as singer Sting and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The group, named World War Zero, had a starting budget of half a million dollars and hoped to hold more than 10 million climate discussions with Americans across the country and the political spectrum.
Though Mr. Kerry’s appointment is an important step in Biden’s response to climate change, Mr. Kerry’s actual ability to induce change will be largely determined by the Senate, making the upcoming Georgia runoff a deciding factor in the effectiveness of this administration’s climate policy. However, as former conservative congressman Bob Inglis stated, Mr. Kerry’s appointment as an established and respected figure may spur more across-the-aisle cooperation, as it removes the danger of “creating a new Democratic star.” In other words, politicians were concerned that Biden might appoint a strong but unestablished climate envoy who could potentially be a threat to conservatives in upcoming elections. With his history in international climate policy and strong ties with climate policy leaders, Mr. Kerry will hopefully be able to repair U.S. climate credibility and promote genuine climate action.
Comments