John Kerry to resign from Biden admin climate role Wednesday - WWMT-TV

John Kerry to resign from Biden admin climate role Wednesday

WASHINGTON (TND) — Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will resign from his role Wednesday, a spokesperson for the White House confirmed to The National Desk (TND) Monday.

Kerry will reportedly leave his role to help President Joe Biden win reelection, while also progressing goals set at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference. The former secretary of state first shared his intentions to resign this year in January, according to Reuters.

Kerry is the first person to hold the position of U.S. special presidential envoy for climate. When he was sworn into the role in 2021, he argued the Biden administration needed to communicate it was “done with denial." Kerry then formed a department to reconstruct the global reputation of the U.S., which he claimed was “in tatters.”

“The most critical decision of that day was a commitment to do every single thing in our power to be able to limit the earth’s temperature increase to 1.5 degrees centigrade – a threshold-science decision,” he noted. “The basic science told us that it was critical for the health and lives of people – in report after report – to be able to hold that temperature increase at 1.5.”

Kerry supported Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit the increase in global temperatures. Months after the move, Kerry revised the U.S.’ nationally determined contribution, which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve a net-zero level to align with the Paris Agreement.
“If we don’t meet our goals in 2030, there is no net-zero-2050,” he argued. “Everything changes.”

Kerry also worked with Biden to create the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience, which assists developing nations with managing climate change’s effect, as well as promotes the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions.

READ MORE | Biden climate official says coal is 'killing people on a daily basis,' calls for worldwide ban

“We forged an innovative partnership with other nations and with the private sector in order to drive innovation and action,” Kerry argued. “We put super pollutants ... at the top of our agenda.”

Former President Donald Trump has opposed Biden on climate change policies, as he withdrew from the Paris Agreement during his presidency due to its perceived unfairness for Americans.

“The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers ... and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories and vastly diminished economic production,” Trump said at the time.

The former president also focused on deregulation to cater to national businesses. A 2017 executive order required the repeal of two regulations for every one promulgated.

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