November 24, 2020 8:07:08 pm
The president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, and the former Secretary of State, John Kerry. (File / AP)
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named John Kerry, who served as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama and is one of the main architects of the Paris climate accord, as his special presidential envoy on climate change. Following the announcement, Kerry tweeted: “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 address this crisis as the president’s envoy for climate. ”
Who is John Kerry?
In February 2013, Kerry was sworn in as the 68th Secretary of State and also became the first sitting Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman to become Secretary in more than a century. He also volunteered for the Navy and has served two tours of duty in Vietnam.
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry. (File / AP)
Significantly, Kerry is considered to be one of the key architects of the Paris agreement, which has also been seen as one of the Obama administration’s most important achievements. He signed the Paris Climate Agreement on behalf of the US in 2016 and launched a bipartisan organization called World War Zero in 2019 to bring together unlikely allies on climate change and with the goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions in the country by 2050.
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The agreement was signed by more than 195 countries in December 2015 with the idea of slowing down the global warming process by making efforts to “keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels and continue the efforts to limit the temperature increases to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels ”.
Why is Kerry’s appointment significant?
Under the administration of President Donald Trump, the United States formally withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement earlier this month. Trump has called the deal “unfair” to US interests and announced his decision to waive the deal in 2017, a move that was criticized by environmentalists.
On the other hand, Biden has maintained during the course of his campaign during the presidential elections that if he were elected to power he would rejoin the agreement and therefore the appointment of Kerry looks like Biden fulfilling his promise to work in climate change. In fact, on November 5, Biden tweeted: “Today, the Trump Administration officially abandoned the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will join it. “
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During his campaign, Biden proposed a $ 2 trillion spending plan to address climate change that includes promoting clean energy and climate-friendly infrastructure.
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Kerry’s appointment is especially critical as it “elevates the issue of climate change to the highest echelons of government,” noted a report in The New York Times. As a senior special envoy in the cabinet, Kerry will be tasked with persuading other nations to take “increasingly bold” steps to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, according to the Times report.
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