John Kerry mocked as ‘climate clown’ for suggesting world would ‘feel better’ about Ukraine war if Russia cut emissions
President Biden’s outgoing climate czar, John Kerry, one of the most powerful and esteemed figures in Washington, made jaws drop this week when he suggested that the world might “feel better” about the ongoing bloodshed caused by Russia in Ukraine if Moscow cut its emissions.
“Russia is 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,” Kerry, 80, said during a foreign press briefing in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, his penultimate day on the job before leaving to assist Biden’s re-election campaign and teach at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs.
“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 created the Cabinet-level position of climate envoy for Kerry — a former secretary of state under Barack Obama and the 2004 Democratic nominee for president — in 2021, but critics heaped scorn on the ex-Massachusetts senator for traveling to meetings with foreign leaders and international climate junkets by private jet.
Less than a year into the job, the Gulfstream GIV-SP plane owned by Kerry’s wife reportedly took 48 trips and dispersed more than 300 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air, compared with the 4.6 metric tons emitted by typical passenger planes.
Kerry has sidestepped criticism of taking meetings with authoritarian leaders on climate-related issues, refusing in a congressional hearing last July to even call Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator.”
Global carbon dioxide emissions increased by 1% last year, driven largely by pollution from India and China.
Last year, on the anniversary of D-Day, Kerry also made an astounding comparison between Allied forces’ fight against Nazi Germany and combating climate change in the 21st century.
“They were fighting for a set of values I would say to you are just as important today as they were then,” he said. “They put their lives on the line to fight against fascism, tyranny and misinformation and the savage slaughter of innocent lives.”
“Make no mistake, just as that was a fight for the future as much as anything we have ever faced, what we are seeing now is the same.”
Kerry, who will be replaced as climate czar by White House senior adviser John Podesta, triggered one more round of backlash with his comments.
“At this point, the Biden admin is like a continuous SNL skit,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted alongside a clip of Kerry’s comments.
“I had to listen to this three times to make sure Kerry really said this. And he did. Embarrassing beyond words, and quite frankly, utterly offensive!” International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky wrote on X.
Radio host Buck Sexton also chimed in, tweeting: “The insane gibberish of a climate fanatic.”
Others critics also piled on the Ukraine flub, with one social media user calling Kerry a “raving lunatic” and a “climate clown.”
“Just when you think this administration can’t say anything stupider… John Kerry thinks if Russia would just announce what they are doing to reduce emissions then people would feel better about them killing Ukrainians,” another user tweeted.
Kerry’s controversial comments came after a Russian news agency reporter probed him about the US-Russian relationship as it related to his climate agenda.
“I believe that Russia has the ability to be able to make enormous changes in what they really want to do. I mean, if Russia has the ability to wage a war illegally and invade another country, they ought to find the effort to be responsible on the climate issue,” Kerry responded.
“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,” he continued.
“Sadly, and I say sadly, obviously, 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.”
When contacted by The Post Thursday, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington declined to comment on Kerry’s bizarre statement, and advised a reporter to reach out to the Russian embassy instead.
Moscow’s outpost did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A US intelligence report declassified in December revealed 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the Kremlin launched its invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month the losses have been far greater for Russia than Kyiv’s forces.
“31,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about,” Zelensky said Feb. 25. “But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us.”
Ukrainian forces recaptured more than half of Russian-occupied territory in the first year of the conflict, according to the New York Times, but the war has deveolved into a stalemate in the following year.
With ammunition supplies depleted, Zelensky has appealed to the European Union and US lawmakers for more military aid to finish the fight.
The US has provided $113 billion for Kyiv’s war effort since February 2022, with President Biden warning last month that the situation was “dire” if Congress cannot pass another funding bill.
Russia’s emissions did claim the attention of the Pentagon at least once during the war, when the US released footage last year of a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a US Air Force surveillance drone over the Black Sea in international airspace.
