There had been previous climate policy advisors in the White House fulfilling similar roles.
Carol Browner was director of the now-defunct
White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy from 2009 to 2011. Barack Obama had appointed
Todd Stern to the role of special envoy for climate change in 2009. Stern later served as US chief negotiator for the
Paris Agreement. Following Stern's departure in mid-2016, Jonathan Pershing took over as US climate envoy until the end of the administration. In November 2020, President-elect
Joe Biden announced former secretary of state
John Kerry would serve in a newly created role as the first special presidential envoy for climate. This new position made him a member of the
United States National Security Council (NSC). It was the first time that the NSC would have an official dedicated to climate change issues and to addressing the
climate crisis as one affecting
national security. The term "climate
czar" was used informally to describe Kerry's position. On January 13, 2024, sources close to Kerry revealed that he would leave this position by the upcoming spring. Later that month, it was announced that
John Podesta would succeed John Kerry as envoy. The position has been left vacant in the
second cabinet of Donald Trump.
Foreign visits • April 2021: Envoy John Kerry became the first senior official of the
Biden administration to visit
China. On a visit to
South Korea, Kerry discussed issues including the recent decision by Japan to
dump radioactive water of the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific. • March 2023: London, Paris • June 2023: Paris, Rome • July 2023: China, during the
2023 Asia heat wave that set a new record of in
Sanbu, Xinjiang, China, which Kerry mentioned in particular. ==List of envoys==