Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s 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., according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registration information reviewed by Fox News Digital.
In financial filings submitted since joining the Biden administration, Kerry had reported holding a stake worth more than $1 million in the firm owned by his wife Teresa Heinz-Kerry.
The plane’s registered owner is now listed as AV Aviation LLC., a small firm based at the Waterbury-Oxford Airport in Connecticut. Documents filed with the Connecticut state government shows that AC Aviation is a subsidiary of the New York City hedge fund AC Investment Management which specializes in renewable energy and clean technology investments and manages funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Secretary Kerry travels commercially in his role as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate,” Whitney Smith, a spokesperson for Kerry, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I can confirm the plane previously owned by his wife’s family was sold last summer.”
Smith added Kerry doesn’t have a relationship with AC Investment Management.
The sale of the Gulfstream came about a month after Kerry — whom President Biden appointed to the high-profile climate role in January 2021 — was heavily criticized for his continued ownership of the plane.
Kerry, though, has previously defended his use of private jets to travel. In 2019, he told Icelandic reporter Jóhann Bjarni Kolbeinsson that he has to “fly to meet with people and get things done,” that he had devoted his life to fighting climate change and that he offsets his carbon consumption.
In his role as special presidential envoy for climate, Kerry travels around the world, attending high-profile climate summits and diplomatic engagements in an effort to push a global transition from fossil fuels to green energy alternatives.
