As individual states certify election results to confirm Joe Biden as the next U.S. President, we’re starting to get a picture of who will occupy cabinet positions in the Biden administration. On Monday, November 23, President-elect Biden appointed John Kerry as his special presidential envoy for climate.
Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, also served as Secretary of State under President Obama. He has held a variety of positions, such as Senator and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, throughout his political career, which has spanned nearly four decades. He has also taken a critical look at the environment, including helping to negotiate and signing the Paris climate agreement on the U.S.’s behalf in 2015. In his new position in the Biden administration, he’ll sit on the National Security Council, which has never before reserved a spot for an official dedicated to climate change. Biden wants to make clear that climate change will be a priority in his administration, and Kerry’s appointment aims to signal that to the international community.
Kerry’s cabinet position marks an abrupt change in the U.S.’s role in both climate relations and the broader international community that has played out over the last four years under President Donald Trump. Even though the U.S. is the second highest greenhouse gas emitter, Trump, citing concern to the U.S. economy, decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, a UN initiative to combat greenhouse gases that was signed by 195 countries. Biden has indicated that the U.S. will re-enter the climate agreement as soon as he assumes the presidency in January 2021. He wants to signal to the world that the U.S. is once again involving itself in the global fight against climate change.
Kerry, having been involved with foreign affairs under Obama, is the figure the U.S. needs to regain credibility in the eyes of the international community. While the Obama administration’s foreign policy has been criticized for its secrecy and prolonged foreign wars, Kerry has also proved to be successful at navigating diplomatic relationships. When the member states within the Paris climate agreement meet next November to discuss their progress, Kerry will hopefully have reasserted the U.S.’s position of legitimacy within the group.
At 76, Kerry is over 50 years older than some of the young activists, such as Greta Thunberg, who are leading the grassroots movement against climate change. However, Kerry’s 30 years of experience on the political frontlines of climate change make him the best candidate to reaffirm the U.S.’s role within the Paris climate agreement’s framework. It wasn’t that long ago that Kerry himself was a politically driven youth, leading protests against the Vietnam War. In 1992, he and Al Gore advocated for action on climate change at the first Rio Earth Summit. Though he may no longer appeal to American youth as an authoritative voice on climate change, the international community is familiar with Kerry and his policies.
Kerry’s challenge will be to meet and keep up with standards the European Union is setting so that the U.S. can again become a legitimate force against climate change. As Secretary of State, Kerry worked to ensure close relations with the EU, saying that the bond between the two was “enduring and it is unbreakable.”
However, the U.S. has a history of signing onto climate agreements and then abruptly pulling out of them under ensuing Republican administrations, such as in the case of the Kyoto Protocol. In 2001, President George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from the 1997 agreement that aimed to curb greenhouse gases, citing concern for the American economy and that energy prices would increase. Kerry will have to prove to the EU that the U.S. intends to keep its promises this time.
Since his appointment announcement, Kerry has tweeted saying that “the whole world must come together” and that “all nations must raise ambition together.” A member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s government responded to Kerry’s appointment saying that the U.S.’s engagement with the Paris agreement is crucial, adding that “France can’t do it alone, and we need to incessantly find new support and to avoid new opposition.”
Proving to the international community that the U.S. can be trusted to remain in the agreement will be difficult, and it will be a tough promise to keep if the U.S. Senate is Republican-controlled. That said, Kerry’s success in convincing the country that it should adopt the Paris climate agreement in 2015 should serve as an indicator that he’s a staunch advocate for the international agreement and that he’s prepared to fulfill that duty a second time.
(Photo Credit: “John Kerry” by Center for American Progress Action Fund is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0)
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