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John Kerry is stepping down as the president’s special envoy for climate this spring, according to two people familiar with the decision. The change comes weeks after Kerry, 80, played a key role during a climate conference in Dubai helping to forge a compromise among nearly 200 countries aimed at reducing fossil fuels. The White House didn’t immediately comment on Kerry’s decision. Kerry, whose departure will come as President Biden is intensifying his re-election campaign, is one of the few top officials to depart an administration that has had historically low turnover. Kerry has held the post for three years...

The world is unlikely to reach the 'worst case scenario' of climate change by the end of the century, according to a new study, that found efforts to reduce emissions are helping keep warning under control. The Paris Climate Agreement goal to limit global warming this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-industrial temperatures was set in December 2015. This urged nations to take action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses in order to forestal the most extreme climate change scenarios being predicted by scientists at the time - that could see temperatures rise by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit....

President Biden's recently appointed climate czar, John Kerry, took a private jet to Iceland in 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle award for climate leadership, Fox News has learned. Kerry defended his high-pollution ride at the time, calling it "the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle" in an interview obtained by Fox News. The incident had not been previously reported in the American press. -snip- Icelandic reporter Jóhann Bjarni Kolbeinsson confronted Kerry at the event over his choice of transportation, asking: "I understand that you came here with a private jet....

The Biden administration's China policy must not sacrifice national security nor the U.S. economy for China's empty climate promises.With President Biden signing a series of executive orders aimed at combating climate, he appears more than willing to sacrifice both the economy and good-paying American jobs to theoretically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, seems to believe America must have China’s cooperation to succeed in emissions reduction.Yet, according to the latest United Nation’s Emissions Gap Report 2020, Biden and Kerry couldn’t be more wrong. In truth, the United States has done more for reducing GHG emissions than...

Launch a “100 Days Masking Challenge” and Leading by Example in the Federal Government Re-Engage with the World Health Organization to Make Americans and the World Safer Structure Our Federal Government to Coordinate a Unified National Response [to Covid-19] Extend Eviction and Foreclosure Moratoriums Extend Student Loan Pause Rejoin the Paris Agreement on Climate Change Roll Back President Trump’s Environmental Actions in Order to Protect Public Health and the Environment and Restore Science Launch a Whole-of-Government Initiative to Advance Racial Equity Reverse President Trump’s Executive Order Excluding Undocumented Immigrants from the Reapportionment Count Preserve and Fortify Protections for Dreamers Reverse...

Joe Biden will be keeping busy during the first days of his presidency after vowing to enact several executive orders right away while on the campaign trail. Among the promises Biden has made include mask mandates, striking down the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, and having the United States rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. While it's an ambitious plan, Biden plans on signing a handful of executive orders on his first day in office, per a memo from incoming chief of staff Ron Klain.

ROME — The Vatican suggested Thursday a Biden presidency might inject new life into the stagnant Paris Climate Accord after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2017. The Vatican COVID-19 Commission announced Thursday that it is organizing a webinar next week in preparation for a December 12 global climate summit to be co-hosted by the United Nations and the UK to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In its preparatory document, the Vatican team lamented the lack of initiative and commitment around the Paris climate goals, something it said needs to gain renewed momentum...

Here we are in the midst of the second wave of a once-in-a-half-century pandemic, with the economy flattened and millions of Americans unemployed and race riots in the streets of our major cities. And Joe Biden says that one of his highest priorities as president will be to ... reenter the Paris Climate Accord. Trump kept his America First promise and pulled America out of this Obama-era treaty. Biden wants us back in -- immediately. Why? Paris is an unmitigated failure. You don't have to take my word for it. National Geographic, a supporter of climate change action, recently ran...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry attended a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum during which he asserted that a great reset was urgently needed to stop the rise of populism. Kerry vowed that under a Biden administration, America would rejoin the job-killing Paris Climate Agreement but that this was “not enough.” “The notion of a reset is more important than ever before,” Kerry said. “I personally believe … we’re at the dawn of an extremely exciting time.” The former Senator made it clear that this “reset,” which is merely a re-branding of the same new world order that...

BERLIN (AP) — The United States on Wednesday formally left the Paris Agreement, a global pact forged five years ago to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change. The move, long declared by U.S. President Donald Trump and triggered by his administration a year ago, isolates the United States in the world but has no immediate impact on international efforts to curb global warming. ....

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said, if elected, he’ll collaborate with China in two major areas. “Our approach to China will focus on boosting American competitiveness, revitalizing our strengths at home, and renewing our alliances and leadership abroad,” the former vice president wrote in an article published on Oct. 22 in the World Journal, a lesser-known Chinese newspaper in New York. “We’ll work to collaborate with China when it’s in our interest, including on public health and climate change.” He made a similar commitment during the presidential debate with President Donald Trump on the same day. “I’m going to...

QINGYANG, China (Reuters) - Red coal trucks zip up and down narrow dirt tracks, churning up clouds of dust in China's remote Gansu province. Nearby, the towering stanchions of a new railway bridge rise out of a muddy river winding through the hills. The Huaneng Group, one of five big Chinese state utilities, is building a $1.9 billion 4 gigawatt coal and power project in the northwestern region near the city of Qingyang, with the aim of delivering its electricity to the east of the country.... ...[China] added 11.4 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity in the first six months of 2020,...

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is touting a new Climate Action Plan, and recently joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 states committed to implementing policies that support the Paris Agreement — which the Trump administration rejected. According to the governor, “states like Pennsylvania must take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect our communities, economies, infrastructures, and environments from the risks of a warming climate.” The best way to protect our economy and infrastructure? Raising taxes, increasing regulation, and increasing spending, Governor Wolf argues. His plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80 percent by...

Nearly 200 nations have agreed rules on implementing the 2015 Paris agreement. After marathon talks in Katowice, Poland, the rulebook was approved unanimously on Saturday evening. The agreement aims to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below 2C. The final session was delayed by more than 30 hours amid an ongoing stand-off over carbon markets to reduce emissions. Some accused the hosts of not shepherding the agreement through.

China is the leading emitter of CO2 among the nations of the world. Its CO2 emissions are more than double those of the United States. Yet, the Paris Accord negotiated by former President Obama exempts China from contributing to pollution emission reductions. On top of that, the Accord obligates signers from developed nations to pay less developed nations $100 billion per year in climate related aid starting in 2020. Xie Zhenhua, China’s lead envoy at the United Nations conference on global warming in Poland, castigated the developed countries for “neglecting to compensate us for the environmental damage they have done...

The warning signals of climate change that have hit people around the world in the last few months must be heeded by national governments at key meetings later this year, political leaders and policy experts are urging, as the disruption from record-breaking weather continues in many regions. This week, scientists are gathering in South Korea to draw together the last five years of advances in climate science to answer key questions for policymakers. What is expected to emerge will be the strongest warning yet that these unusual occurrences will add up to a pattern that can only be overcome with...

I see the debate over precisely how it is that manmade climate change will destroy the planet rages on.All we know for sure is that President Trump, lunatic-at-large, is responsible as he withdrew the U.S. from the planet-saving Paris Agreement on climate change. And since consensus has it that we are all going to die perhaps we should spend a little time contemplating the pros and cons of cooling v. warming. The metaphysics alone make my head spin, but better to be prepared.So I give you Robert Frost’s poem to contemplate the possibilities. Fire and IceSome say the world will...

Barack Obama promised upon leaving the White House that he would stay out of President Trump’s hair unless it was really, really important. Increasingly during 2017, Mr. Obama found really important topics on which to challenge Mr. Trump. When Mr. Trump pushed Congress last March to repeal Obamacare, Mr. Obama jumped in to save his signature program with one of his first public comments as a private citizen. “Reality continues to discredit the false claim that this law is in a ‘death spiral,’” Mr. Obama said, using Mr. Trump’s favorite phrase for criticizing the Affordable Care Act. “Likewise, this law...

And then there were two: the US and Syria. As Nicaragua signs on to the Paris Agreement, the United States and Syria are now the only two nations in the world who have refused to be members of the climate pact. The Central American country held out on signing the deal for two years, based on criticisms that it was "insufficient" in addressing climate change. On Monday, however, the Nicaraguan government announced its intent to join the accord. Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo said they sent a "document of adhesion" to the United Nations, according to Nicaragua's state-run...

The terms of the Paris Agreement are set in stone, the EU, China and Canada agreed at a summit in Montreal this weekend, while Washington was forced to deny that the US is planning to stay in the accord. Ahead of a UN General Assembly meeting in New York this week and the COP23 climate summit in Bonn in November, EU, Chinese and Canadian officials met in Montreal on Friday and Saturday (15-16 September) to present a united front against the United States on climate action. The US was represented at the meeting by an observer who, according to EU...