Todd D. Stern

Todd Stern is the Special Envoy for Climate Change at the State Department. Mr. Stern plays a central role in developing the U.S. international policy on climate and is the President’s chief climate negotiator, representing the United States internationally at the ministerial level in all bilateral and multilateral negotiations regarding climate change. Mr. Stern also participates in the development of domestic climate and clean energy policy.

Mr. Stern brings extensive experience in the private sector and government. Before joining the Obama Administration he was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on climate change and environmental issues, and a partner at the law firm WilmerHale, where he served as Vice Chair of the Public Policy and Strategy Group.

Mr. Stern served in the White House from 1993 to 1999. As Staff Secretary, he played a central role in preparing the key issues of domestic, economic and national security policy for the President’s decision, as well as handling a number of special assignments. From 1997 to 1999, he coordinated the Administration’s initiative on global climate change, acting as the senior White House negotiator at the Kyoto and Buenos Aires negotiations. At Treasury, from 1999 to 2001, Mr. Stern advised the Secretary on the policy and politics of a broad range of economic and financial issues, and supervised Treasury’s anti-money laundering strategy. Previously, from 1990-93, Stern served as Senior Counsel to Senator Patrick Leahy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he advised Senator Leahy on intellectual property, telecommunications and constitutional issues.

After leaving the government, Mr. Stern was an Adjunct Lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Mr. Stern is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.