John Kerry will step down as US climate envoy this spring. Report that American media. He is expected to help President Joe Biden’s campaign for a new term.
Biden created the role of climate envoy specifically for Kerry, writes The New York Times. As Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, Kerry played an important role in brokering the Paris climate agreement. Donald Trump, as the new president, then withdrew the United States from the agreement, but his successor Biden reversed that withdrawal.
As climate envoy, Kerry represented the US at three more UN climate conferences. He consulted extensively with China, even in a period of deteriorating relations. During a visit to China in July, Kerry argued for keeping such “politics” separate from climate. “We only follow the science,” Reuters news agency quoted. “There is no politics or ideology in what we do.”
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Vietnam War
The 80-year-old Kerry has been a well-known figure in the United States for decades. He fought in Vietnam and afterwards spoke out against that war. He threw away his awards. Kerry later became a senator representing the state of Massachusetts.
The rest of the world got to know Kerry when he unsuccessfully ran against incumbent President George Bush in 2004. Kerry remained a senator until Obama asked him to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in 2013.
Xie Zhenhua, Kerry’s Chinese counterpart, also resigned last month. With the withdrawal of these two key players in global climate policy, the fragile Sino-American cooperation in particular becomes more uncertain.
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