John Kerry

Snark aside, the three major accomplishments on climate change this fall have gotten almost no coverage. Long term, they, in conjunction with the Paris Climate Accord, may be the most important Obama accomplishments.

The accomplishments are:
1) Getting the Paris Climate Change implemented years faster than most agreements are due to a huge effort to get other countries on board quickly. This is most important if - heaven forbid - Trump were to win. He now can not really get the US out for three years - and it takes a year to actually exit.

2) An amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which was designed to govern acid rain, was passed - again with a lot of US leadership - to work with industry to eliminate over time compounds used in air conditioning that are extremely bad for climate change.

3) An agreement that deals with the carbon footprint of aviation.

Between this and other environmental actions taken by Obama, he will have done the most any President has done for the environment. A good part of the credit for this should go to John Kerry, a life long environmentalist who suggested that he wanted the environment to be as much a signature issue for him as women's and children's issues were for HRC. The common wisdom when he became secretary was that nothing could happen on climate change diplomatically. Kerry's long ties to China's climate chnage negotiators opened the possibility - and the US/China pact made Paris possible.