Another day, another airport, another long haul private jet flight. That looks to be the future itinerary for John Kerry who has promised to remain President Joe Biden’s special climate envoy at least through this year’s U.N. climate talks set for December in Dubai, known as COP28.
Kerry has informed Biden of his decision to stay in his post and keep circling the globe telling others to abandon fossil fuels and cut back on their air miles, the Boston Globe detailed in an interview he did with Jess Bidgood published Sunday evening.
It was reported in 2021 Kerry took “48 trips lasting more than 60 hours and emitted an estimated 715,886 pounds, or 325 metric tons” since he first took the position in the Biden administration.
That figure has jumped since as Kerry shows no sign of stepping away from the private departure lounge canapés and cocktails just yet.
“There’s sufficient unfinished business that I felt it would be inappropriate to walk away from that at this point in time,” Kerry told the newspaper, before adding:
We absolutely understand the road ahead and what we need to do, and I think we can make this COP even more important in terms of eliciting increased ambition,” he said. “This has a chance of kicking everybody in the rear end and pushing this process into higher gear, which is where it needs to go.
As the Globe report states, Kerry has spent years criss-crossing the globe, traveling to 30 countries to lecture governments, corporations, financial institutions, and citizens to tackle global temperatures.
His mission is to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Watch as John Kerry defends China, the world’s single biggest emitter, from criticism as he scolds the rest of the world to do more:
As if to confirm his commitment to flying to meetings rather than using more modern digital connections, over the past weekend he flew to Brazil to meet with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“This is the year we have to save the Amazon,” Kerry declared.
In 2019, when he traveled on a private jet to Iceland to receive a climate change award, Kerry was asked why he chose to fly private.
He responded by noting his own self importance, saying private jets are “the only choice for someone like me.”
“If you offset your carbon, it’s the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle,” Kerry said.
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