John Kerry justifies private jet travel to climate change conferences with incredible defense: 'They buy offsets'

John Kerry, special climate envoy to President Joe Biden, last week tried to justify climate change advocates using private jets.

Yahoo! News senior climate editor Ben Adler confronted Kerry about the fact that many climate change advocates who participate in Davos conferences about the alleged dangers of climate change often fly to those conferences in private jets.

Kerry responded by immediately defending his colleagues.

"I’ve talked to them about it," Kerry said. "They offset — they buy offsets, they offset, and they are working harder than most people I know to be able to try to effect this transition."

To "offset" is to buy so-called "carbon credits," which allegedly make up for the carbon one has emitted. By using the line of defense, Kerry justified the clearly hypocritical use of gas-guzzling private jets, which those flying to Davos climate change conferences claim actively harm the environment.

John Kerry: The Yahoo News Interviewyoutu.be

Adler also asked Kerry about the recent decision to begin flying commercial.

Fox News reported last month that the Kerry family "quietly sold their private jet to a New York-based hedge fund following intense criticism of the plane's carbon footprint in light of Kerry's work fighting global warming. The Kerry family's private jet, a Gulfstream GIV-SP, is no longer owned by his family's charter firm Flying Squirrel LLC.," the outlet reported, citing FAA documents.

Kerry, however, rejected the claim that he only recently began to fly commercial.

"No, I didn't fly private while I was in this job. It's just a misnomer," he said.

Interestingly, Kerry qualified the response by noting that he does not fly private in his official capacity. That does not mean, however, that Kerry flies commercial for personal travel.

Several years ago, Kerry used the same line to justify his use of a private jet to advocate for climate change.

"If you offset your carbon — it's the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle," Kerry said. "I can't sail across the ocean. I have to fly to meet with people and get things done."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!