Kerry Bows Out as Man Asked to Repair US Climate Reputation - Bloomberg
Kerry's Climate Victories Clouded by Prospect of Trump Return - Bloomberg
Kerry's Climate Victories Clouded by Prospect of Trump Return
John Kerry is stepping down as US climate envoy this week. His long career as a statesman brought big wins, but also made him a sometimes-awkward defender of the world’s largest historic emitter.
John Kerry at a US Chamber of Commerce summit in Los Angeles in 2022. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
It was the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president, and the man who would become one of his top diplomats was already plotting how to return the US to an international fight against climate change it had ceded four years earlier.
With Covid-19 still raging, John Kerry huddled in a Maryland backyard with at least five of his deputies — heat lamps on to cut the January chill — to strategize how the US could win back some of its credibility on the issue and propel more climate action around the world. It was the nadir of decades of US climate diplomacy, after outgoing President Donald Trump pulled the nation out of the Paris Agreement and unraveled the country’s carbon-cutting policies.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.