John Kerry has made one special ask of world leaders since he became President Biden's climate envoy in January: help me consign coal to history. As the UN climate summit convenes in Glasgow, Scotland, all signs suggest they won't deliver.
Driving the news: The COP26 summit is a proving ground of sorts for Kerry's style of personal diplomacy, which helped him broker the 2015 Paris climate accord. The challenge is having it pay off in a world rife with multilateralism, and with the U.S. leadership role in question.
- Kerry has billed Glasgow as the world's "last, best chance" for averting potentially catastrophic effects from global warming.
- At the same time, he's been working to lower expectations. As recently as last Thursday, Kerry acknowledged there will be a gap after Glasgow between where the world needs to be on emissions and where it is.
- He's also started to look past COP26, emphasizing that this needs to be a "decisive decade" and "decade of action."
The U.S. and other countries secured some commitments on coal use at the G20 summit on Sunday, but this fell short of what Kerry had been fighting for.
- Efforts to curb coal usage in his own country have been hampered by the resistance of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who used to be governor of a coal state.
Between the lines: Any shortfall isn't for lack of effort....
- Kerry has mimicked his time as the most-traveled secretary of State in history, maintaining a frenetic schedule.
- He's visited at least 15 countries since January, some more than once, with a single-minded