Outgoing climate czar John Kerry has created a storm over his crass statement about Russia.
The special envoy for climate — being moved to President Biden’s campaign committee this spring — said if Russia makes “a greater effort to reduce emissions,” it might “open up the door for people to feel better about what Russia is choosing to do.” He was referring to Russia’s murderous invasion of Ukraine.
Listen to the video on Fox News…
It’s not clear from the video from a foreign press briefing earlier this week if Kerry elaborated or if the journalists in the room pressed him for more.
A Climate Office spokesman told the Herald Friday that Kerry prefaced his statement, as video shows, that Russia’s invasion more than two years ago remains illegal.
“Sec. Kerry began by saying that he believed ‘that 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,'” the spokesman stated.
“And unfortunately,” the spokesman said Kerry added, “because of the actions that Russia took in an unprovoked, illegal war against another nation, we have not been engaged in discussions with Russia.”
The spokesman added, “If you read the entire quote, he was clearly talking about their emissions and climate record and not the Ukraine war when he said people would feel better about what they are doing right now.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed during Russia’s full-scale invasion, BBC reports, with a UN committee reporting 30,457 civilian deaths.
