President Joe Biden’s climate czar, former Sen. John Kerry, will leave the Biden Administration to work on the president’s reelection campaign. The news was leaked on Saturday.
Kerry was one of Biden’s first cabinet members, sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021 as the nation’s first special presidential envoy for climate, and the first person to have a “climate” seat on the National Security Council.
Biden said in 2021 that Kerry would have a seat at every table around the world “as he combats the climate visits to meet the existential threat we face.”
“John Kerry’s decision to step down from his role as the Biden Administration’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate presents an opportunity to improve both transparency and Constitutional governance, said Michael Chamberlain, director of the watchdog group, Protect the Public Trust. “Despite heading an extremely powerful office in the State Department and lacking Senate confirmation, Mr. Kerry’s chain of command bypassed the Secretary of State and went directly to the President. His office was also infamous for attempts to avoid the transparency the American public expects. PPT was one of the few entities able to pry records out of Mr. Kerry’s office but what little did trickle out revealed staff attempting to avoid federal records requirements (discussing scheduling a call or meeting “focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper,” for instance) and outsourcing foreign policy to influential special interest groups. We wish Mr. Kerry all the best but nevertheless are hopeful that his absence will signal a turn toward an office that will respect the norms, traditions, and obligations that will help restore the public’s evaporating trust in its government.”
Kerry was the 2004 Democrat Party presidential nominee and was a U.S. senator representing Massachusetts. He is a Navy veteran who completed two combat tours in Vietnam, for which he received a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Combat V and three Purple Hearts.
In 2015, while serving as Secretary of State for President Barack Obama, Kerry traveled to Anchorage at the end of August to host the Conference on Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience (GLACIER).
Kerry, now 80 years old, has zigzagged across the globe, often in private jets, to make the case for reduction in carbon emissions from oil and gas. In July, he traveled to China, but left without any concrete commitments to reduce emissions from the communist Chinese government. Next week Kerry will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has received criticism for his own carbon footprint as he demands the end of fossil fuels.
The news of his upcoming departure was not officially announced, but leaked to sources and was first reported by Axios, which says he will leave before spring.
