Kerry to Work on Climate After Exiting Envoy Role

AFP/APP
Davos: Veteran US diplomat and politician John Kerry said Wednesday he planned to keep working to address climate change, including by encouraging the private sector, as he steps away from his envoy role.
Kerry said he believed the time was right to move on after the COP28 summit last month in Dubai, where the world, for the first time as a whole, called for an eventual transition away from fossil fuels responsible for global warming.
“I think we had a terrific outcome in Dubai, and I think it’s a game-changer,” he told AFP at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Now we have to make sure that the people in the private sector really step up,” he said.
Kerry said he would “continue to work hard using other tools” on climate.
He said he would be supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, although he would not be taking a formal role.
Biden, upon taking office in 2021, appointed Kerry to the first cabinet-level role of special envoy on climate. It was a sign of the high priority his administration placed on the issue as the planet shatters warming records and endures increasing numbers of natural disasters.
Kerry, who turned 80 during the Dubai summit, served as secretary of state and a senator and was the Democratic Party’s unsuccessful candidate for president in 2004 against George W. Bush.
As the top diplomat under President Barack Obama, Kerry helped negotiate the breakthrough 2015 Paris climate accord, from which Republican President Donald Trump, who is seeking a comeback against Biden, withdrew the United States.