Meet Jonathan Pershing
Posted on 28. Sep, 2009 by Ben Jervey in U.S.A.
Dr. Jonathan Pershing, U.S. Deputy Envoy for Climate Change
I don’t envy Jonathan Pershing. Take a look at his work history (see below), and you know that lead negotiator for the U.S. here at these Bangkok talks is as solid a rep–for the country and the climate–as we could hope for. Through his work at WRI and as lead author of the IPCC Foruth Assessment Report, he understands and respects what the science demands. He gets it. He wants what’s right.
But here in Bangkok, he’s a State Department-appointed negotiator charged with representing a U.S. position that is, unfortunately, very constricted. We can only assume that he’s under State Department orders to bring back a treaty that has at least a snail’s chance of getting ratified by the two-thirds majority needed in our Senate. There are plenty of “tripping points” that’d more or less crush any hope of the treaty’s ultimate ratification: the amount of money the U.S. will have to pony up for adaptation efforts and who will hold those purse strings, from what baseline emissions reductions are measured, and common requirements for mitigation efforts (a subject that became very heated late yesterday afternoon–more on that soon as we sort things out some).
Anyways–for now, check what his old colleagues at WRI (who certainly know him much better than I do) had to say after he was appointed:
“I can think of no other person more fitting to handle the complexities and political considerations of creating domestic and international policy on climate, the most important issue of our time,” said WRI President Jonathan Lash. “We’ve been honored to have him build our climate team.”
Pershing has served on the California Market Advisory Committee, was the facilitator for the Northeast states’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and for the Illinois Climate Change Advisory Group, and has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress…
On the international front, he is a regular participant in climate negotiations for the United Nations and was lead author for the recent Nobel-Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report…
Before joining WRI, he worked as the head of the energy and environment division at the International Energy Agency and served as deputy director and science advisor for the State Department’s Office of Global Climate Change.”
Will follow up soon with more on Pershing’s U.S. Delegation opening press briefing and whatever we sort out about a bit of tension that broke out between India and the U.S. late Monday afternoon over issues of differentiation (basically–whether developed and developing countries should be beholden to the same type of accounting and verification for greenhouse gas reductions
The Adopter - Ben Jervey
Ben Jervey comes from New York City. He works to better communicate climate, energy, and environmental issues to mainstream audiences. His reporting and work on climate change and clean energy have brought him from the streets of New York to the glaciers of eastern Greenland, to the mountain villages of Vietnam. read more»
The Adopted - Meet the US Delegation
The US delegation from Bonn through Copenhagen is being lead by Jonathan Pershing, longtime veteran of climate negotiations with 30 years under his belt working on climate and energy issues on the domestic and international levels. read more»