January 07, 2017 US Secretary of State John Kerry walks to a
vehicle upon arrival at Jacksonville International Airport in
Jacksonville, Florida. MANDEL NGAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA /
AFP
The former secretary of state John Kerry signed the 2015
Paris Agreement on behalf of the United States, a decision
subsequently reversed by President Donald Trump.
Now, he is set to be President-elect Joe Biden’s climate envoy,
in a clear sign of the upcoming administration’s renewed commitment
to fighting climate change.
“I’m returning to government to get America back on track to
address the biggest challenge of this generation and those that
will follow,” Kerry tweeted shortly after his appointment.
“The climate crisis demands nothing less than all hands on
deck.”
The 76-year-old, a longtime Senate colleague, friend, and
political ally of Biden who stood by the president-elect when his
candidacy was in crisis, brings to the table the clout and
connections associated with being ex-president Barack Obama’s top
diplomat.
The chief architect of the Iran nuclear deal will need all his
skills as a statesman as the US looks to rebuild its strained
credibility when it returns to the Paris accord, which Biden has
vowed to do on the first day he takes office.
Despite his advancing age, observers say the Democratic Party
grandee, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, has lost
none of his zest for international affairs.
Last year he pivoted towards making climate his signature issue,
launching a cross-party coalition called “World War Zero” that
included top military officials, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger
and celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Watson.
“Things are getting worse, not better. So we have our unlikely
allies coming together here… to treat this like a war,” he
said.
The years of climate inaction under Trump have made the war
harder to win.
Emissions from the world’s second-biggest polluter have been
falling in recent years thanks to the increased contribution of
natural gas and renewables — and this year by the Covid-19
pandemic.
But the rate isn’t close to what is needed to achieve the goal
Biden has set for the United States, of net carbon neutrality by
2050.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
– Regaining trust – The Paris agreement aims to
limit end-of-century warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees
Fahrenheit), to avoid triggering a series of catastrophic climate
tipping points that could confine most of humanity to the planet’s
northern and southern bands.
Scientists have calculated that carbon neutrality — which would
involve reducing emissions and increasing the amount of carbon
captured from the atmosphere — must be achieved by the middle of
the century to reach that goal.
Back in 2015, setting a national carbon neutrality target of
2050 seemed radical. But since then, many have done just that,
including the European Union.
China recently announced its intentions to get there by 2060,
all the while scolding Washington for “obstructing” the global
fight.
Kerry’s first task, therefore, will be to regain the trust of
international partners whose faith was shaken by Trump’s unilateral
withdrawal from the agreement and disdain for climate science,
which eased the way for countries like Australia and Brazil to
weaken their ambitions.
It’s a tall task, but Kerry has an established track record.
Beyond Paris and Iran, his diplomatic accomplishments include
reaching a deal with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to
destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, and pacifying Pakistan in the
wake of the Osama Bin Laden raid, after the wayward ally was kept
in the dark.
That’s in addition to being a highly-decorated veteran from the
Vietnam war, which he signed up for while still a student at Yale
University, only to grow disillusioned with the futility of the
conflict.
He trained as a lawyer, but was drawn into the world of
politics, becoming elected senator for Massachusetts.
The tall, patrician Bostonian, who sports a thick mane of gray
hair and is known to speak good French, will need to hit the ground
running. Biden will be expected to unveil America’s new climate
plan to the world ahead of a UN conference in Glasgow next
November.
AFP