Under the Climate and Environment Track during Germany’s G7 Presidency, environment, climate and energy ministers from G7 countries have pursued several goals including the accelerated global phase-out of coal; the forced decarbonization of certain sectors; the systematic transtition toward environmental sustainability in all areas of life; and initiatives to protect the ocean. This work builds on the previous G7 agenda, which includes the sustainable use of resources, adapting to the impact of the climate crisis, and the development of environmentally sustainable supply chains.
After COP27 and as Germany’s G7 Presidency draws to a close, join the American Council on Germany and the German Embassy in Washington, DC for the final event in their series of online discussions highlighting Germany’s G7 Presidency.
On Monday, December 12, climate experts Jennifer Lee Morgan, State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action in the German Federal Foreign Office, and Dr. Jonathan Pershing, the Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will discuss new initiatives to tackle the climate crisis and how the G7 countries can work with the Global South to address common challenges.
Jennifer Lee Morgan is a German-American environmental and climate expert who has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. She has been State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action in the German Federal Foreign Office since March 2022. Before that, she served as the Executive Director of Greenpeace International. From 2013 to 2016, she was a Member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, and from 2009 to 2016, she was the Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC. She served as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and has worked at the WWF International, the U.S. Climate Action Network, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Earlier in her career, she served as Coordinator of the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign at ICLEI in Freiburg.
Ms. Morgan earned her BA at Indiana University in Bloomington and a MA in International Affairs at the School of International Service at American University. She had a Robert Bosch Fellowship and served at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment
Dr. Jonathan Pershing is the Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He leads a team of grantmakers focused on climate change in the United States, China, India, Europe, and Latin America, and conserving the North American West. He served as Hewlett’s Environment Program director from 2017 to 2021 and returned to lead the program in 2022.
From 2021 to 2022, Dr. Pershing supported Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in advancing various international commitments over the past year. Previously, he served as Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State and lead U.S. negotiator to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. In this capacity – as well as in his earlier capacity as Deputy Special Envoy – he was instrumental in securing the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and subsequently, as senior international climate advisor to the White House and Secretary of State, was charged with overseeing its early implementation.
He holds a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of Minnesota. A scientist by training, he served as a lead author, review editor, and contributor for reports of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and American University, and he has published and lectured widely on climate and energy issues.
