John Kerry fears Russia-Ukraine war will distract from climate change
Biden's climate czar said 'massive emissions' will negatively impact the globe
President Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, warned that
Russia’s war against
Ukraine could distract the world from the climate change crisis and produce "massive emissions" that will negatively impact the globe.
"I'm concerned about Ukraine because of the people of Ukraine and because of the principles that are at risk, in terms of international law and trying to change boundaries of international law by force," Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for
climate, said in an interview Monday on BBC Arabic,
MEMRI reported Wednesday. "I thought we lived in a world that had said no to that kind of activity. And I hope diplomacy will win."
"But it could have a profound negative impact on the climate obviously. You have a war and obviously you’re going to have massive emissions consequences to the war. But equally importantly, you're going to lose people's focus, you're going to lose certainly big country attention because they will be diverted and I think it could have a damaging impact," he continued. "So, you know, I think hopefully President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on 66% of the nation that was over frozen land."