On Thursday, Joe Biden’s international climate envoy John Kerry said in an interview that he didn’t want the Russian invasion of Ukraine to distract from “climate change.”
The Washington Times reports:
Mr. Kerry, a former secretary of state, told BBC News that it was important for Russian President Vladimir Putin and other global leaders to remain committed to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
“I hope diplomacy will win … but equally importantly, you’re going to lose people’s focus, you’re going to lose, certainly big country attention,” Mr. Kerry said. “I think it could have a damaging impact.”
Mr. Kerry said that while he abhors Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he hopes that Mr. Putin will remain open to working with Western leaders on tackling climate change.
“I think hopefully, President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on 66% of … frozen land,” he said. “Now it’s thawing and his infrastructure is at risk, and the people of Russia are at risk.”
You can’t make this shit up | John Kerry, the Ted Baxter of American diplomacy, thinks the biggest problem with the Ukraine crisis is that it is distracting attention from his precious climate portfolio. | pic.twitter.com/m7HUL9Ri0L
— Mike (@Doranimated) February 24, 2022
“I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate,” Mr. Kerry said.
