Biden Announces Creation of 'Climate Czar' Position, Picks John Kerry for the Role
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is reportedly considering former Secretary of State John Kerry for a newly-created position to oversee his climate agenda, in the event he is sworn in as president in January.
While the election is still hotly-contested by President Donald Trump, Biden claimed victory in the election after he was named president-elect by the establishment media.
The 78-year-old has since begun floating big names as potential cabinet members.
Biden’s team last week was reported to be considering former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland for the role of attorney general.
Now, according to The Hill, Biden’s transition team is said to be considering Kerry for the role of “climate czar.”
“Secretary Kerry elevated environmental challenges as diplomatic priorities, from oceans to hydrofluorocarbons. He was a key architect of the Paris Climate Accord, and signed the historic agreement to reduce carbon emissions with his granddaughter on his lap,” Biden’s team said in a release.
In that role, Kerry would lead a Biden administration’s “efforts to fight climate change,” according to The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch.
In such a capacity, the former State Department head for the Obama administration would work with multiple federal agencies to implement Democrats’ plans to combat climate change.
Beitsch reported Kerry would be “coordinating programs that are expected to stretch across multiple agencies while leading efforts at a White House that may need to look for avenues beyond Congress to advance climate priorities.”
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Climate change has long been an issue that Democrats have vowed to take on.
Biden has stated he would rejoin the Paris climate accord, which Trump withdrew the country from in 2017.
Trump actually spoke about the agreement Sunday remotely when addressing leaders of the G20 Summit.
“To protect American workers, I withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris climate accord, a very unfair act for the United States,” Trump said, Business Insider reported.
“The Paris accord was not designed to save the environment. It was designed to kill the American economy,” Trump also stated.
“I refuse to surrender millions of American jobs and send trillions of American dollars to the world’s worst polluters and environmental offenders, and that’s what would have happened,” Trump concluded.
With Kerry at the helm of a potential Biden administration’s climate agenda, Americans could expect the White House to pivot on policy with regard to American energy.
Kerry embraced being named to such a position on Twitter.
“America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is,” Kerry wrote.
America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is. I’m proud to partner with the President-elect, our allies, and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis as the President’s Climate Envoy.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) November 23, 2020
“I’m proud to partner with the president-elect, our allies, and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis as the President’s Climate Envoy,” he concluded.
Biden’s climate plan has an estimated $2 trillion price tag, and calls for net zero emissions by 2050, potential putting hundreds of thousands of American jobs in jeopardy.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
