Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr hail Joe Biden as climate change President

Former PM Kevin Rudd, former foreign minister Bob Carr and former Dow Chemicals chief executive Andrew Liveris have called on Joe Biden to become the ‘climate change President’.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Picture: AAP

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr and former Dow Chemicals chief executive Andrew Liveris have signed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times calling on Joe Biden to become the “climate change President”.

The notable Australians were included among a group of 153 signatories from entertainment, politics and business.

Mr Biden, the letter said, could be remembered as the climate President who “led humanity off the cliff-edge”.

“You can transform the world’s energy systems from fossil fuels to clean energy, while also creating an abundance of jobs, reducing harmful pollution and tackling economic, racial, and health inequality in the process,” the letter said.

“By rejoining the Paris Agreement on day one, you have moved the US in the right direction.

“But as you have stated, it is simply not enough, and we must ‘Do all we possibly can’,” it said.

The signatories said climate change presented the greatest economic opportunity for innovation, job creation, new business and investment.

“It goes hand in hand with restoring justice and building an equitable, inclusive and just future for all,” the letter said.

It said Mr Biden’s commitment to “build back better with clean energy jobs and tackling the legacy of environmental injustice is the consequential action that science and our future demands”.

The signatories said: “We will work alongside you to realise this ambitious pursuit.”

The letter was organised by Climate Power 2020, which claims to have on its advisory board Mr Biden’s special climate ambassador, former secretary of state John Kerry.