John Kerry to step down as US climate envoy – 01/13/2024 – World

John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s special climate envoy, plans to leave the Biden administration, according to two people familiar with his plans.

Kerry, 80, has served as the president’s top diplomat on climate change since early 2021, working to persuade governments around the world to aggressively reduce their emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

He led the United States negotiating team at three United Nations climate summits, reaffirming American leadership following the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement during the Donald Trump administration.

Kerry defended cooperation between the US and China, the world’s two biggest polluters, on global warming, even in times of tension.

On Wednesday, Kerry met with Biden at the White House to inform the president of his intention to resign, according to a person familiar with the meeting. On Saturday, his team learned of his decision in a hastily organized meeting, said a person who asked to remain anonymous.

Kerry has told staff he intends to step down in the coming months, and he is widely expected to get involved in the 2024 presidential campaign to help publicize Biden’s work on climate change. He has not yet been chosen a successor.

Meanwhile, Kerry plans to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Kerry’s plans were first reported by Axios.

A former Massachusetts senator, Democratic presidential candidate and President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Kerry has brought celebrity status to global climate summits.

Widely considered a tireless advocate for climate action, Kerry traveled to 31 countries in an attempt to restore US confidence on climate change and persuade other countries to do more to help keep the global average temperature below 1.5°C above from pre-industrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which scientists say the dangers of global warming — including floods, droughts, wildfires and ecosystem collapse — lie.

Kerry played a key role in urging Biden to set a more aggressive target for U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which the president did by pledging to cut emissions by about half by 2030. But Kerry’s record on persuading other nations to act was mixed.

In November, the US and China agreed to tackle global warming together by increasing wind, solar and other renewable energy with the aim of replacing fossil fuels.

This agreement was significant and was reached after years of diplomacy between Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua. However, it fell short of China’s promise to phase out the intensive use of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, or to stop building new coal plants.

Kerry’s decision to resign comes on the heels of Xie’s announcement that he too is retiring. This has raised concerns about what climate diplomacy between the US and China will look like after the departure of the two people most interested in cooperation.

The future of the role of climate envoy in the United States is also uncertain. Biden created the position for Kerry, who worked directly for the president and was not subject to Senate confirmation when he was nominated, a fact that angered many Republicans. Republican lawmakers have criticized Kerry’s role and launched investigations into his contacts with environmental groups.