Global Warming Becomes Hot Spot for U.S. State Department

"[B]ehind the scenes at the State Department Mr. Kerry has initiated a systematic, top-down push to create an agencywide focus on global warming," reports Coral Davenport. "His goal is to become the lead broker of a global climate treaty in 2015 that will commit the United States and other nations to historic reductions in fossil fuel pollution."

"Shortly after Mr. Kerry was sworn in this past February, he issued a directive that all meetings between senior American diplomats and top foreign officials include a discussion of climate change," she notes. "He put top climate policy specialists on his State Department personal staff. And he is pursuing smaller climate deals in forums like the Group of 20, the countries that make up the world’s largest economies."

"But Mr. Kerry’s ambitious agenda faces enormous obstacles."