Climate envoy

The climate change movement began to gain momentum during the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the rise in global environmentalism during this time. The publication of prominent works, including Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth (1972), and the World Commission on Environment and Development’s Our Common Future (1987), helped raise public awareness of humanity’s global and destructive environmental impact. From this revelation emerged the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer — a framework for coordinated international efforts to prevent ozone depletion — followed by the landmark Montreal Protocol of 1987, which limited the global production and consumption of nearly 100 ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) and has therefore played a crucial role in ozone restoration. ODS levels have since declined by 97%, with a full recovery of the stratospheric layer expected by mid-century. Because ODSs are potent greenhouse gases (GHGs), these imposed restrictions have also led to a significant reduction in global GHG emissions, in turn combating a major driving force behind climate change. The Montreal Protocol is still widely considered as one of the most monumental international climate change mitigation achievements in history. The numerous diplomats, delegates, and ambassadors that participated in the creation and implementation of the treaty — of which included U.S. Department of State negotiator Richard Elliot Benedick — laid the foundation for the future official role of climate envoys. The 1979 First World Climate Conference (WCC-1) in Geneva, organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and attended by scientists from 53 countries and 24 international organizations, was one of the first major international climate change-focused summits. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), jointly founded in 1988 by WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), consists of members from 195 countries that meet annually or biannually to compile and provide governments with updated scientific data that guides climate action and policymaking. That same year, over 300 scientists and policymakers participated in the Toronto Conference to address the role of atmospheric pollution in perpetuating climate change. The UNFCCC was introduced and opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, formally known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Former United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former US Vice President Al Gore, former US Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Frank E. Loy, former US President George H.W. Bush, former Iraqi Ambassador to the US Fareed Mustafa Kamil Yasseen, and former Head of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Xie Zhenhua were among those known for their work and leadership on the frontlines of the global climate change movement during the late twentieth century. On May 1, 2007, Ban Ki-moon, who was the Secretary-General at the time, appointed three individuals to serve as UN Special Envoys on Climate Change: former Norwegian Prime Minister and World Commission on Environment and Development chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, former UN General Assembly president and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea Han Seung Soo, and former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos. • Ali Daud Mohamed, who is the current Climate Change Envoy of the Republic of Kenya. • Anthony Agotha, who is the current Ambassador at large and the Special Envoy for Climate and Environment at the European External Action Service (EEAS). • Bader Omar Al-Dafa, who is Qatar's current Special Envoy for Climate Change and Sustainability. • Benedikt Höskuldsson, who formerly served as Iceland's Special Envoy for Climate from 2022 to 2024. • Caroline Dumas, who is the current International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General's Special Envoy for Migration and Climate Change. • Fareed Mustafa Kamil Yasseen, who formerly served as the Climate Envoy of the Republic of Iraq. • James Fletcher, who is the current Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Climate Envoy. • Jennifer Lee Morgan, who has served as the Special Envoy for International Climate Action at the German Federal Foreign Office since 2022. • John Kerry, who was appointed by the Biden Administration as the first-ever official US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate from 2021 to 2024. • Kamal Amakrane, who is the current Climate Envoy of the President of the UN General Assembly. • Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, who is a prominent Marshallese climate change activist and currently serves as the nation's Climate Envoy. • Liu Zhenmin, who is China's current Special Envoy for Climate Change, a position he was appointed to following Xie Zhenhua's retirement in 2024. • Mark Carney, who was appointed to the role of UN Special Envoy on Climate Change in 2019 and subsequently the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance in 2020. • Michael Bloomberg, who was appointed to the position of UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change in 2014 by former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and then to the position of UN Special Envoy for Climate Action in 2018 by Secretary-General António Guterres. Since 2021, he has served as the UN Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions. • Rachel Kyte, who has served as the UK Climate Envoy or Special Representative on Climate since 2024 and was previously the World Bank Group's Special Envoy for Climate Change until 2015. • Rachmat Witoelar, who has served as the Indonesian President’s Special Envoy for Climate Change since 2010. • Ravi Menon, who became Singapore's first-ever Ambassador for Climate Action and Senior Adviser to the National Climate Change Secretariat at the Prime Minister's Office in 2024. • Ruel Yamuna, who is Papua New Guinea's current Special Envoy for Climate and Environment. • Sabra Ibrahim Noordeen, who was appointed by former Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to become the nation's first-ever Special Envoy for Climate Change. • Sadiq Khan, who has served as the Mayor of London since 2016 and was appointed to the role of Special Envoy of the Fossil Free Cities for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative on June 23, 2025. • Spencer Linus Thomas, who is the Ambassador and Special Envoy for Multilateral Environmental Agreements in Grenada, serving as the nation's chief negotiator for climate change and biodiversity. • Sultan Al Jaber, who is the United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s current Special Envoy for Climate Change. • Susan Biniaz, who was the US State Department's Principal Deputy Special Envoy for Climate under John Kerry from 2021 to 2024. • Todd Stern, who served as the US Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2009 to 2016 and was the country’s chief negotiator at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. • Vanessa Kerry, who was appointed as the WHO’s first-ever Director-General Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health in 2023. • Walter Kälin, who has served as the Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement, a state-led initiative dedicated to protecting those displaced from disasters and climate change, since 2017. • Xie Zhenhua, who was China’s Special Envoy on Climate Change from 2021 to 2024. == US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change ==

In November 2020, Joe Biden, who was the President-elect at the time, announced his appointment of former US Secretary of State John Kerry to the newly established Cabinet-level position of Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change. Kerry, who had previously served under the 2013-2017 Obama Administration, was notable for his persistent, outspoken activism against climate change as well as his pivotal role in revolutionary climate action milestones. As Secretary of State, Kerry was the chief US negotiator for both the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which concentrated on reducing the production and consumption of potent GHGs called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Given that it was unprecedented for a climate envoy to participate in the NSC, Kerry’s inauguration on January 20, 2021 ushered in a new era of climate action in the US. This was accomplished through measures to reduce GHG emissions, spearhead clean energy initiatives, align finance flows to climate objectives, and build the resilience and adaptability of communities to climate change impacts. This Working Group, which was co-led by Kerry and China's former Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua, was formed to strengthen relations between the two nations and facilitate dialogue and collaboration in regards to global climate change mitigation. In this statement, the two nations, as the world's largest carbon emitters, acknowledge the threat of climate change, reaffirm their commitment to working alongside each other as well as other countries to address the crisis, and declare their continued adherence with the climate action guidelines and responsibilities imposed by the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. ==References==