U.S. climate envoy, former secretary of state and presidential candidate John Kerry plans to leave the Biden administration later this winter to instead help Joe Biden’s reelection bid for the White House, Kerry’s office said.
Kerry informed his staff early on Saturday after speaking with Biden this week, his spokesman told Reuters.
Political news outlet Axios first reported the news about the 80-year-old Kerry on Saturday.
Kerry was instrumental in brokering the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the consensus reached at the United Arab Emirates’ COP28 in Dubai in December calling for a shift away from fossil fuels.
He initially said he believed Biden’s reelection to the White House would be the “biggest” difference in progress on the climate crisis, Axios reported, citing a source close to the administration.
Kerry and Biden spoke in the Oval Office earlier this week after Kerry attended the Cop28 global climate summit in Dubai late last year, with the climate envoy hoping to play a major role in the campaign for the 2024 election role in promoting the president’s climate action, the outlet further reported.
Kerry was named special envoy for the climate crisis shortly after Biden won the 2020 presidential election over Donald Trump and began building his team during the transition period in November of that year.
At the time, the Biden transition team said Kerry would be “full-time on climate change” in the role, which would include a National Security Council seat for the first time to elevate the importance of addressing the climate crisis and global climate change. heating.
As President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Kerry succeeded Hillary Clinton and played a prominent role in the international effort to shape the Paris Climate Agreement, which committed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to Avoid catastrophic storms, heat waves, floods and climate change. Other looming climate threats.
In January 2017, when Kerry left the administration as the Obama administration was replaced by the Trump administration, Kerry sharply criticized President Trump’s decision to repeal climate policies and remove the United States from the Paris Agreement. Biden rejoined the agreement after taking office in 2021.
Kerry ran for president in the 2004 election and won the Democratic nomination, but was defeated by George W. Bush in November of that year, and the Republican president won a second term.
His campaign was severely damaged by a pro-Bush group that discredited Kerry’s military record as a decorated Vietnam veteran turned anti-war activist.
In August 2004, then-Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry defeated Bush at the polls, while Bush had only served briefly in the Texas Air National Guard. The group began trying to destroy Kerry’s reputation.
Republican strategist Chris LaCivita masterminded the so-called “Operation Speedboat” for Kerry and is now a top aide to Trump’s reelection campaign.
Reporting contributed by Reuters
