The former presidential hopeful, secretary of State and senator will try to convince reluctant nations to take stronger action to fight climate change — even as his own country makes only halting progress
His nation’s Congress is abandoning an aggressive assault on fossil fuels. The foreign governments he’s trying hardest to court are scoffing at the United States’ commitment to the cause. Allies in Europe are crafting plans to protect their own industries from climate laggards overseas, including the U.S.
And without major U.S. climate legislation, “I think that people will wonder whether the U.S. can get its act together,” said John Podesta, the former Obama White House climate adviser who is close to Biden’s team. “They’ll begin to wonder about the credibility of the United States to get the job done."
Meanwhile, the European Union, which has a record of regulating industries to wring carbon out of its economy, is weighing the creation of a carbon border tax that would penalize imports of some carbon-intensive products from countries that don’t have their own strong climate policies.
As it stands now, the world is on track to see a 2.7 degrees Celsius increase by the end of this century which would raise seas, make entire regions unbearably hot and spark even more disastrous flooding, wildfires and droughts. And he regularly confers with members of the Senate, where he served for 28 years representing his home state of Massachusetts.
None of those things surprise the people who worked for him, who say he has expressed no plans to stop the work, regardless of whether the Glasgow gathering ends in success or failure. That’s the type of pressure Kerry has been applying on trips to Beijing and New Delhi, as well as numerous other capitals around the world. Still, persuading countries to put a long-term planetary benefit over a shorter-term economic gain is no easy task.
“He’s deeply knowledgeable on the details of climate change policy and diplomacy,” David Sandalow, a former Clinton and Obama administration climate and energy official who is now at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, said in an email. “When I was a U.S. climate change negotiator in the 1990s, no member of Congress knew more or engaged more deeply on climate change diplomacy than Secretary Kerry.
“What’s changed is that we’ve made progress on other nations finally stepping up to recognize that this is a global problem,” Hagel told POLITICO. “Kerry has had immense responsibility for all of that.” “He knew that in any dealings with the Russians it was always a problem. It was a hard sell. But that never stopped John,” Hagel said. “I’ve seen him go into encyclopedic depth on the environment. No matter how far you are in the depth on this issue, John will go there with you. And he is so passionate about it that people will listen.
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