John Kerry, the ex-United States Senator and Climate Czar under the Biden administration, is infamous for his occasional clumsy remarks.
His latest addition to the collection occurred this week when he suggested that public perception of Russia would improve if the country dedicated as much effort to combating climate change as it does to its conflict with Ukraine.
RNC Research summarized Kerry’s remarks in a post on X.
“Biden’s climate envoy’ John Kerry says Russia must “make a greater effort to reduce emissions. Maybe that would open up the door for people to feel better about what Russia is choosing to do at this point in time!”
Biden "climate envoy" John Kerry says Russia must "make a greater effort to reduce emissions."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 6, 2024
"Maybe that would open up the door for people to feel better about what Russia is choosing to do at this point in time!" pic.twitter.com/R0tdvkP9Kz
Earlier this week, Breitbart noted that a Russian journalist queried Kerry about whether the tense relations between the United States and Russia hindered the necessity for collaboration on climate change.
The reporter asked: “In this regards, do you think that the Western sanctions are affecting global efforts to fight climate change and the shared commitments under the Paris Agreement?”
Kerry responded:
No, I don’t. Because I believe that Russia has the ability to be able to make enormous changes if it really wanted to. I mean, if Russia has the ability to wage a war illegally and invade another country, they ought to be able to find the effort to be responsible on the climate issue.
And unfortunately, because of the actions that Russia took in an unprovoked, illegal war against another nation, we have not been engaged in discussions with Russia, sadly. I say “sadly” because it’s a loss for the world not to be able to have Russia acting constructively on this issue.
But we need every country, including Russia – Russia’s one [of] the largest emitters in the world. If Russia wanted to show good faith, they could go out and announce what their reductions are going to be and make a greater effort to reduce emissions now.
Maybe that would open up the door for people to feel better about what Russia is choosing to do at this point in time.
Breitbart described Kerry’s statement as “awkwardly phrased.”
It’s worth noting that back in February 2022, Kerry urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to consider the environmental consequences when engaging in military actions in Ukraine. Subsequently, Kerry expressed frustration that Putin’s actions were impeding global efforts to combat climate change.
Furthermore, Fox News highlighted another instance of Kerry making an awkward statement related to climate change during discussions about the conflict in Ukraine last July. He urged individuals to consider the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from Russia’s extensive bombing campaign.
Kerry added, “Lots of parts of the world are exacerbating the problem right now, but when you have bombs going off, and you have damage to septic tanks or to power centers, etcetera, you have an enormous release of greenhouse gases, methane, all of the family of greenhouse gases, and the result is it’s adding to the problem.”
