John Kerry to step down as Joe Biden’s climate envoy

John Kerry is one of the few top officials to depart an administration that has had historically low turnover and comes as the US President intensifies his re-election campaign.

Joe Biden, left, campaigns with former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2019. Picture: AFP

John Kerry is stepping down as the President’s special envoy for climate this spring, according to two people familiar with the decision.

The change comes weeks after Kerry, 80, played a key role during a climate conference in Dubai helping to forge a compromise among nearly 200 countries aimed at reducing fossil fuels.

The White House didn’t immediately comment on Kerry’s decision. Kerry, whose departure will come as President Biden is intensifying his re-election campaign, is one of the few top officials to depart an administration that has had historically low turnover.

Kerry has held the post for three years and has close ties with top Chinese officials, with whom he has been eager to engage even as some of the President’s advisers strike a more hawkish posture toward Beijing.

John Kerry is one of the few top officials to depart an administration that has had historically low turnover. Picture: AFP

Over the summer, as tensions between the two countries were high, Kerry traveled to China to iron out differences between Washington and Beijing on climate matters and was also able to push forward the two powers’ tentative efforts to reset fraught ties.

“We came here to unstick what had been stuck,” Kerry told reporters after hours of meetings with Chinese officials over the summer. “And, indeed, we did succeed.” Biden has largely stocked his cabinet and the White House with officials who have longtime experience as aides rather than with big-name Democrats. Kerry, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004 and a Massachusetts senator, is a notable exception.

In tapping Kerry, who was also secretary of state during the Obama administration, Biden opted for an envoy with gravitas who could repair international relations on climate that had frayed during the Trump administration.

Kerry, as secretary of state, had overseen U.S. negotiations on the Paris climate accord for the Obama administration. In 2017, President Trump pulled out of that agreement, but the US rejoined it soon after Biden took office.

WSJ