Biden names Podesta as new US global climate envoy
Senior clean energy adviser replaces John Kerry as face of American climate diplomacy
President Joe Biden has named his senior adviser on clean energy John Podesta to succeed John Kerry as top US global climate diplomat with the transition to occur at an unspecified date this spring.
Kerry, the first US special presidential envoy for climate, has held the post since Biden took office in January 2021. He is stepping down to assist Biden’s reelection campaign in the runup to 5 November national elections.
Podesta has been overseeing implementation of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, the $369bn partisan federal climate law passed by Democrats and signed by Biden in August 2022. He joined the administration earlier that year.
He will continue to serve in this role in addition to working on global climate policy in coordination with the Department of State.
Biden’s chief of staff Jeffrey Zients praised Kerry for having brought “American climate leadership back from the brink and marshaling countries around the world to take historic action to confront the climate crisis.”
He called Podesta “a fierce champion for bold climate action.”
Podesta, a veteran Democratic Party operative, is best known to Americans as chief of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential bid against Donald Trump.
He was a key climate policymaker during former President Barack Obama’s second term. Most notably as an architect of the 2015 Paris international climate change agreement.
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