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Biden’s Former Climate Czar Says John Kerry Could Circumvent Congress To Execute Carbon Credit Plan

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Jack McEvoy Energy & Environment Reporter
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Former White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said Tuesday that John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, may be considering a way to work around Congress and move forward with his plan to reward nations that reject fossil fuels with “carbon credits,” according to Bloomberg.

Kerry is planning to unveil a framework that would give developing countries “carbon credits” if they reduce CO2 emissions from their power sector at the United Nations COP27 climate summit as part of his plan to leverage such credits to fund green energy projects, according to The Financial Times. McCarthy said that Kerry may be attempting to carry out his plan without the approval of a potentially Republican-controlled Congress that would be unlikely to give him the funding he needs, Bloomberg reported. (RELATED: John Kerry Wants To Pay Poor Countries To Stop Using Fossil Fuels: REPORT)

“How you address that obligation with a Congress that won’t give you the resources you need is, I think, what Secretary Kerry is trying hard to figure out at this point,” McCarthy told Bloomberg Law during an interview at COP27. “Maybe we need to think differently about how to offer that support.”

(From L to R) US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meet on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 7, 2022. (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Although the Senate and House were controlled by Democrats during the fiscal year 2022, Congress did not deliver the funding for “international climate finance” that was requested by the Biden administration, according to Bloomberg. Should Republicans win back either chamber during the midterm elections, Kerry could be even more unlikely to receive climate funding.

Kerry is attempting to get other countries, corporations and climate experts to support his plan to incentivize developing nations not to produce fossil fuels, according to the FT. Kerry, who has previously called on the private sector to fund green initiatives, believes that his plan is particularly attractive to large firms that would be able to purchase the credits as it offers them the opportunity to offset their carbon emissions.

The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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