The Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign Policy

Date: 

Wednesday, April 19, 2023, 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Location: 

Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA

Graphic with event details against a background photo of icy glacier

"The Future of Climate Action: A Conversation with Gina McCarthy"

Free and open to the public. No tickets required. Masking is encouraged. This event will be in person and streamed live on our YouTube channel. Please plan on being seated by 4:45 p.m. as the event will start promptly at 5:00 p.m.      

Speakers:

Gina McCarthy, the first-ever White House National Climate Advisor and former US EPA administrator.

James Stock, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University; the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University.

Chair:

Melani Cammett, Center Director; Harvard Academy Senior Scholar (on leave 2022–2023). Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University.

Cosponsored by the Office of Sustainability and Climate; the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Climate Change. 

Bio:               

Gina McCarthy is one of the nation’s most respected voices on climate change, the environment, and public health. As head of the Climate Policy Office under President Biden, McCarthy’s leadership led to the most aggressive action on climate in US history, creating new jobs and unprecedented clean energy innovation and investments across the country. Her commitment to bold action across the Biden administration, supported by the climate and clean energy provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, restored US climate leadership on a global stage and put a new US national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 within reach.              

Throughout her years of public service in both Republican and Democratic administrations, McCarthy is credited for her common-sense strategies and ability to work across the aisle, with states, communities, business leaders, and the labor community, to tackle our nation’s toughest environmental challenges in ways that spur economic growth and improve public health for workers and families, especially those living in environmental justice communities.                  

Before joining the Biden administration, McCarthy was president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation's largest and most influential environmental advocacy organizations. Prior to NRDC, she was a Professor of the Practice of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she served as the director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment. She was also a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. During this time, she engaged students and climate science thought leaders across the faculty, as well as corporate and nonprofit leaders across the world, to coordinate strategies to turn climate and health science into actions that promote a healthier, more sustainable, and just world.                    

From 2013–2017, McCarthy was the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Obama. McCarthy focused on using science and input from broad external engagement to strengthen clean air standards including establishing tighter standards on mercury pollution, a new EPA Clean Water Rule to protect rivers and streams that 117 million Americans rely on for drinking water, the first national standards requiring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for fossil-fuel-fired power plants, and many other policies, programmatic, and regulatory efforts that demonstrated the United States's strong commitment to protecting public health and the environment. To advance climate and environmental justice domestically and internationally, McCarthy worked to implement President Obama’s climate action plan spearheading US international engagements that resulted in the passage of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase out the use of high global warming chemicals and engaged in efforts leading to the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Prior to her role as EPA administrator, McCarthy held the position of assistant administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation. Prior to that presidential appointment, McCarthy was the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, where she served as chair of the Governor’s Climate Advisory Council, developed the state’s Climate Action Plan, began an initiative called “No Child Left Inside” to introduce families to the natural world by visiting state parks, helped design and implement the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nation’s first cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for power plants. She also held senior positions in the administration of five Massachusetts governors, including Deputy Secretary of the Office of Commonwealth Development and Undersecretary for Policy for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
                         
McCarthy earned a Bachelor of Arts in social anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a joint Master of Science in environmental health engineering, planning and policy from Tufts University.

Contact: 

Sarah Banse
sarahbanse@wcfia.harvard.edu

The Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign Policy was established at the Center for International Affairs in 1993 by members of the Manshel family and by many of their friends. It stands as a memorial to the Manshels’ longstanding commitment to public affairs and their desire to advance greater understanding of the international relations of the United States. The lecture series honors Warren Manshel’s role as a founder of both The Public Interest and Foreign Policy, his service as ambassador to Denmark, and his deep involvement over many years in the work of the Center. It also serves to recognize Anita Manshel as Warren’s full partner and enthusiastic supporter in these endeavors, which he so often acknowledged. For more information on the Manshel Lecture, please visit the Lectureships page.