White House adviser John Podesta has been tapped to be the top U.S. climate diplomat when John Kerry steps down this spring.
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said in a written statement:
“We need to keep meeting the gravity of this moment, and there is no one better than John Podesta to make sure we do.”
“John has — and will continue to be — at the helm of driving the implementation of the most significant climate law in history,” Zients added.
Kerry was a key figure in livering the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement as Secretary of State under then-President Barack Obama.
Kerry has since traveled all over the globe in gas-guzzling private jets to lecture on carbon footprints and climate change.
Last December, Kerry called for coal plants to be shut down worldwide during a speech at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai.
During the event, Kerry said he was becoming “more and more” militant because he claims people are avoiding responsibility and not doing what they are told.
“We don’t need that necessarily to tell us we ought to be transitioning out of coal,” Kerry said.
“There shouldn’t be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world.”
“That’s how you can do something for health. And the reality is that we’re not doing it,” he added.
Kerry also praised the Biden administration’s announcement that it was sending a whopping 3 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds to the UN flagship Green Climate Fund (GCF).
“The GCF has established a strong track record of enabling countries to accelerate the energy transition, assisting communities around the world in building resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis, and mobilizing significant private capital for climate action,” Kerry said as he cheered the cash largesse funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Kerry served as U.S. climate diplomat for three years under Biden.
Last month, the 80-year-old climate doomer told his staff he is putting all his efforts into getting Biden back into the White House.
According to sources, Kerry will remain on his post until the end of winter or early spring.
He congratulated Podesta on his new post in a post on X:
“We’ve made historic progress these last three years and I know that, in his new role as Biden’s senior adviser for international climate policy, John Podesta will continue to grow the momentum from Glasgow, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dubai.”
We've made historic progress these last three years and I know that, in his new role as @POTUS Biden’s Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy, John Podesta will continue to grow the momentum from Glasgow, Sharm el-Sheikh, and Dubai.https://t.co/TCPRSlmgQK
— Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry (@ClimateEnvoy) January 31, 2024
Podesta, who joined the Biden administration in September 2022, oversees Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has devoted billions of dollars to push the nation into clean energy, including wind and solar.
Podesta served as a top climate adviser to former President Obama and was also involved in negotiations that resulted in the Paris Climate Accord.
Podesta also chaired Hillary Clinton’s doomed 2016 presidential campaign and served as White House chief of staff under former President Bill Clinton.
READ: John Kerry: People Need to Live under Strict Climate Mandates for a “Better Quality of Life”
