• Andrew Light

Andrew Light

United States Department of Energy

Assistant Secretary for International Affairs

Andrew Light leads the Office of International Affairs as the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy. During the second half of the Obama administration, Andrew served as Senior Adviser and India Counselor to the U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change in the U.S. Department of State, as well as a staff climate adviser in Secretary of State John Kerry’s Office of Policy Planning. In that position he was U.S. Director of the U.S.-India Joint Working Group on Combating Climate Change, Chair of the U.S. Interagency Climate Working Group for creation and negotiation of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, and worked on the senior strategy team for the UN climate negotiations. Andrew shared in a Superior Honor Award from the State Department in July 2016, for contributions to the “historic success” of the creation of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Outside of government, Andrew has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, where he led high-level climate and energy dialogues between non-governmental U.S. participants and counterparts in India, China, and the European Union, and co-authored over 20 major policy reports on clean energy and climate cooperation, governance, and economic opportunity. Since 2008 he has been at George Mason University, where he is currently on leave as University Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Atmospheric Sciences, working primarily on the normative dimensions of climate change, restoration ecology, and urban sustainability.

Sessions With Andrew Light

Monday, 1 March

  • 01:10pm - 01:40pm (CST) / 01/mar/2021 07:10 pm - 01/mar/2021 07:40 pm

    Strategic Dialogue

    US Energy Policy, Climate & the New Administration
    Panel Geopolitics/Policy/Regulatory Energy Transition/Climate & Sustainability
    The United States rejoined the Paris Agreement on day one of President Joe Biden’s administration. Climate change will play a fundamental role in American foreign policy as well domestic issues including national security. President Biden’s plan on energy and the environment aims to revitalize the economy, create new jobs, and restore American leadership around the world. What can we expect from a government-wide policy approach to the climate crisis? How will the oil and gas sector respond? Can the energy sector be a driving force behind economic growth and transformational change, and at what pace?
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