The Obama administration is moving quickly to replace a new senior climate change negotiator with an Energy Department official who appears to be more of an analyst and researcher than a globe-trotting diplomat.
The Energy Department’s Jonathan Pershing spent his last day at the agency on Friday before moving to the State Department, where he will fill the shoes of Todd Stern, the long-serving diplomat who announced his resignation last week. Stern will leave his post April 1.
Stern, who served as senior climate change envoy, was key to negotiating the global climate change accord in Paris in December, where 196 countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The nonbinding climate agreement reaches a critical stage next month when the agreement will be laid out at United Nations headquarters in New York to be signed.
A certain number of signatures is needed to ensure that the Paris deal can move forward. Many scientists blame greenhouse gases from fossil fuels for causing the Earth’s temperature to rise, resulting in more severe weather, droughts and floods.
Pershing acted as an aide to Stern’s team during the Paris negotiations, but was not directly involved in the deal making.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, without much fanfare, sent Pershing off to the State Department Friday. Moniz said Pershing’s departure would help to codify a closer relationship between the Energy and State departments in implementing the agreement.
“While I will miss Jonathan’s wise counsel and good humor, I look forward to continuing to work closely with Secretary [of State John] Kerry and Jonathan as our departments work towards domestic and international implementation of the Paris agreement through clean energy solutions,” Moniz said in a Friday statement.
Pershing has some big credentials when it comes to climate change analysis. Before joining the government, he had been a member of the United Nations lead climate change committee, the International Panel on Climate Change, “which has literally helped write the book on climate change and what we can do about it,” Kerry said in a statement last week announcing Stern’s departure.
At the Energy Department, Pershing led the effort to develop an energy blueprint called the Quadrennial Energy Review. The agency is developing its second iteration of the study, which looks to develop policy recommendations four years at a time to help direct U.S. energy priorities. The new report is expected to focus on bringing more renewable energy online to meet the president’s climate goals while improving the reliability of the grid.
Pershing was also a key architect in designing Mission Innovation, which is a core focus of the Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 budget request. The innovation strategy is part of the president’s plan to meet its and other countries’ obligations under the Paris deal by developing advanced energy technologies.
Mission Innovation is a commitment by 20 countries that seeks to double government funding for clean energy research and development.
