In the past year, two individuals affiliated with the Alliance have been appointed / invited by the Obama administration to work on climate change issues.
In January 2009 Diana Farrell joined U.S. President Obama’s administration as deputy director of the National Economic Council and deputy economic advisor to the President. Diana Farrell, former director of Mckinsey Global Institute (MGI), spoke at the 2008 Alliance Roundtable about MGI’s research on global energy productivity and the opportunities available to reduce energy intensity in China and globally. (To view an overview of her presentation, click China’s Energy Productivity Opportunity ). After appointment, Farrell was immediately tasked with working together with NEC chief Larry Summers to help implement the administration’s stimulus package.
Mark Levine, group leader at LBNL and member of the Alliance Leadership Council, is currently working, half time, with Assistant Secretary David Sandalow at Department of Energy’s Office of Policy & International Affairs. Click to see a Mark’s recent discussion at an the Alliance Portland Roundtable event on energy efficiency policy in China .
Levine has been tasked with working out collaborative agreements and activities between China and the US to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His first assignment was to develop a paper describing clean energy R&D centers to support joint work between China and the US. This has been well received by both China and US governments.
Levine is currently working to develop a paper on cooperating and collaborating to reduce GHG emissions in the short term. The final version of this document was expected in September 2009. With respect to the content of the paper, Levine was considering proposing a joint commitment to work on several policy areas to “share each other’s expertise and try to craft programs based on each other’s experience.”
