[ad_1]
Newly Appointed U.S. Climate Envoy Provides Further Evidence That President-Elect Biden Intends To Prioritize Climate Action On The Global Stage
John Kerry, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, will return to the world stage to lead the US push to accelerate global climate action after he was nominated to fill the new role of Climate Envoy by the incoming Biden administration.
In announcing his nominations for a series of high-level positions on his national security and foreign policy team, Biden promised that the new team will “unite the world to meet our challenges like no other, challenges that no nation can face alone.”
In a statement, Biden’s transition team stressed that the new team would seek to restore a multilateral approach to addressing global challenges and reiterated that climate change would be a top priority.
“These officials will immediately begin working to rebuild our institutions, renew and reinvent American leadership to keep Americans safe at home and abroad, and address the defining challenges of our time, from infectious diseases to terrorism, nuclear proliferation, cyber threats and climate change. “Transition said in a statement.
The team consists of several seasoned figures who have long advocated for bolder action on climate change.
Secretary of State candidate Anthony Blinken and proposed UN ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield have repeatedly advocated a multilateral approach to tackling the climate crisis. Meanwhile, reports suggest that Janet Yellen, a former Fed chairman and longtime advocate for a carbon tax, will be nominated as Secretary of the Treasury.
Gina McCarthy, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council and former director of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration, said the appointments marked “a clear return to America’s climate leadership, in the country and abroad”.
“It puts effective climate action at the top of the agenda,” he added in a statement. “Send the message to our friends and allies around the world that they can once again take our word for it and depend on our partnership in the vital effort to confront a global crisis that demands global solutions.”
As Secretary of State to President Obama during his second term, Kerry played a pivotal role in brokering the Paris Agreement, strengthening relations with China to lay the foundation for the historic international agreement. He is now expected to lead a renewed effort by the United States to finalize the rules of the Paris Agreement and secure more ambitious national climate action plans from governments around the world at the crucial COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow next year.
Welcoming his nomination, Kerry tweeted yesterday that “America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent threat to national security that it is. I am proud to partner with the President-elect, our allies and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis as the President’s Climate Envoy. “
He also stressed that urgent measures were needed to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. On the famous 2015 photo of Kerry signing the agreement with her granddaughter on her lap, she wrote that “the work that we started with the Paris Agreement is far from finished.”
The work that we started with the Paris Agreement is far from finished. I return to government so America can get back on track to address the greatest challenge of this generation and those to come. The climate crisis demands nothing less than all hands on deck. pic.twitter.com/xxfakodQ6d
– John Kerry (@JohnKerry) November 23, 2020
“I return to the government so that the United States can get back on track to address the greatest challenge of this generation and those to come,” he added. “The climate crisis demands nothing less than all hands on deck.”
The news comes as the Trump administration finally formally began the transition process after the General Services Administration approved the election result. President Trump insisted that legal challenges against the outcome would continue, but neither case has provided any evidence of widespread voter fraud despite attempts by the White House to promote misinformation to the contrary.
The move paves the way for Biden’s transition team to prepare for the inauguration next month, which is expected to be followed by an immediate request from the White House for the United States to re-enter the Paris Agreement.
The G20 meeting over the weekend appeared to be laying the groundwork for a renewed US focus on climate action with leaders defying Trump’s criticism of the deal to issue a statement underscoring his commitment to accelerating climate action.
However, recent days have also provided new evidence of the scale of the environmental policy repair work that awaits the Biden administration after the guardian reported that the Trump administration is now rushing to transfer ownership of the Oak Flat site in Arizona, an area considered to be ‘sacred land’ by Native American tribes in the region, to a mining company.
[ad_2]
