John Kerry exits as special climate envoy – but he isn’t done with politics quite yet

The longtime senator and former secretary of state was the obvious choice for Joe Biden who created the role after winning the White House in 2020. But his appointment wasn’t without controversy. Louise Boyle reports

John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, in his office at the State Department, on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, in Washington DC (AP)

John Kerry, who has led the United States’ climate mission on the global stage for the past three years, is leaving his post on Wednesday.

The special presidential envoy for climate, 80, announced that he was stepping down in January.

“In three years, Secretary Kerry has tirelessly trekked around the world – bringing American climate leadership back from the brink and marshalling countries around the world to take historic action to confront the climate crisis,” said White House chief of Staff, Jeff Zients, in a statement to The Independent, at the time.

Mr Kerry, a longtime senator and secretary of state under Barack Obama, was the obvious choice for President Joe Biden, who created the role after winning the White House in 2020.

Appointing Mr Kerry to lead negotiations more typically handled by non-public facing bureaucrats signalled that America was back in the global climate fight after four years in the wilderness under former president Donald Trump.

“The world will know that one of my closest friends, John Kerry, is speaking for America on one of the most pressing threats of our time,” Mr Biden said.

But the selection of Mr Kerry also provoked the ire of Republicans and conservative media who goaded him over international trips, and claimed that he regularly traveled by private jet.

Mr Kerry pushed back on that accusation during a House committee hearing last year, calling it “one of the most outrageously persistent lies that I hear”.

“I don’t own a private jet. I personally have never owned a private jet,” he said. A family jet belonging primarily to his wife, the billionaire philanthropist Teresa Heinz, had been sold, he said – though he did not expand on when.

Mr Kerry was a key negotiator in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the global deal to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5C, or well below 2C, to prevent catastrophic climate impacts. When he signed the pact during a ceremony at the United Nations’ New York headquarters, he brought along his young granddaughter.

As climate envoy, Mr Kerry’s gravitas and decades of experience in public life has proved critical in making progress with China.

Secretary of State John Kerry holds his granddaughter as he signs the Paris Agreement on climate change, April 22, 2016 at U.N. headquarters (AP)

He underlined the importance of this cooperation even in the face of China’s human rights abuses, and tensions with the US over trade, territories and a myriad of issues.

“What we’re trying to do is find ways we can cooperate to actually address the crisis” of climate, Mr Kerry told US lawmakers last year, adding that China “is critical to our being able to solve this problem”. China is the world’s largest emitter, and the US is historically responsible for the most greenhouse gas emissions.

In particular, Mr Kerry’s long friendship with Xie Zhenhua, China’s climate envoy, has been pivotal. When Mr Kerry became climate envoy, Mr Xie returned from retirement to the same role in China.

The pair were often spotted having one-on-one sidebars, or walking together at summits, their presence heralded by the flock of aides orbiting them. At Cop28, Mr Xie and his eight-year-old grandson attended an 80th birthday party for Mr Kerry.

Bloomberg reported this week that Mr Kerry and Mr Xie received the blessing of their respective leaders to meet in Beijing in early 2021 in the midst of Covid lockdowns. These talks led to a US-China joint declaration at Cop26 in Glasgow later that year, to “enhance” climate action in the 2020s “with the aim of keeping the above temperature limit within reach”.

Talks then stalled for months due to heightened US-China tensions before resuming in 2023. The two climate envoys were present in California in November when Mr Biden and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reaffirmed their commitment to work together to address the climate crisis.

John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua give a joint news conference at Cop28 (Getty Images)

This agreement between the world’s two superpowers laid groundwork for Cop28 weeks later, where the final deal included, for the first time, a call for transitioning away from all oil, coal and gas this decade. The United Nations hailed it as “the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel era”.

Still, the overall pace at tackling the climate crisis remains too slow. While US emissions fell last year, and China’s are set to do so in 2024, both countries are still heavily invested in the fossil fuel industry, and emissions are not falling fast enough to meet global targets.

China permitted more coal plants last year than in all of 2021, according to Greenpeace, even as it carries out a historic rollout of clean energy. The US is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, and is producing more oil than any nation in history.

When Mr Xie, 74, announced his retirement in January, Mr Kerry posted a lengthy tribute on X, wishing him well.

“Throughout my career, I’ve learned the things that matter most are the people you meet along the way. The strangers who become counterparts who become friends,” Mr Kerry wrote.

“Xie Zhenhua has been one such friend.”

Aside from US-China relations, Mr Kerry’s work as climate envoy, a role within the US State Department, has focused on bolstering a number of fronts to tackle climate change including global pledges to cut the potent greenhouse gas methane, and halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.

He has also championed public-private partnerships, citing the need to get the corporate world on board if there’s to be a fighting chance of drumming up the trillions of dollars needed to slash global emissions by the levels required.

“That’s one of the reasons why I am so focused on the private sector,” Kerry told The Associated Press last week.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende tour the Blomstrand Glacier, June 16, 2016, in Ny-Alesund, Norway. Kerry visited to view areas impacted by climate change with melting ice and the opening of new sea lanes (AP)

The strategy also appeared to be one to insulate progress from the potential shocks of another Trump presidency. Mr Kerry told The AP that the pace of climate action now means that “no one person can reverse what the world is doing now”.

Though he is exiting the climate envoy role, Mr Kerry has made it clear that he isn’t disappering altogether.

“I am not retiring, folks,” he said at Davos in January. Instead, he confirmed last week that he is shifting gears to work on Mr Biden’s re-election campaign, which looks likely to be a grueling match-up against Mr Trump.

He also plans to attend Cop29 in Baku, Azerbaijan later this year where the US delegation will be led by White House senior adviser John Podesta.

“I am not leaving the climate fight,” Mr Kerry said.