White House climate envoy John Kerry is facing renewed criticism after it was revealed that his family private jet has released over 300 metric tons of carbon since he began his position when President Joe Biden took office.
Kerry’s private Gulfstream GIV-SP jet has made 48 trips of 60 hours or more, and released over 715,886 pounds, or 325 metric tons, of carbon since the start of the Biden administration in January 2021, according to federal data, Fox News reported.
The plane is owned by Flying Squirrel LLC, a charter company Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, owns and for which Kerry has over $1 million invested, according to his latest financial disclosure.
Kerry is the head of the State Department’s global climate policy outreach, a position he has held since Biden assumed the presidency in January 2021.
In that capacity, Kerry has made many international trips, travelled to UN climate conferences, met with world leaders and attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
This week, Kerry is scheduled to attend Berlin’s Petersberg Climate Dialogue UN conference, where 40 nations will negotiate further emissions reduction targets and how to finance climate measures for developing countries.
After being announced as the Biden administration’s climate envoy, Kerry, who has been outspoken about the need to move away from fossil fuels, tweeted that the US would “soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is."
In January, Kerry called for the US to shut down power plants and not build new ones, in favour of renewables.
"The problem with folks like John Kerry and the climate hypocrites who run the green movement is that they want to use the coercive power of government," Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power The Future, told Fox News. "They want to use the power of government to deny the rest of us the ability to use those fossil fuels that they take for granted."
"They refuse to voluntarily live how they want the rest of us to be forced to live," he added "It doesn't just make them hypocrites, it makes them, quite frankly, a threat to the rights and freedoms of people around the world. When John Kerry voluntarily lives the way he wants the rest of us to be compelled to live, then we can talk about his climate goals."
Turner questioned the necessity of international leaders frequently flying around the world for meetings.
"At what point will John Kerry and all of the world leaders who care about climate change ever jump on a Zoom call?" Turner said.