Jonathan Pershing was the Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He led a team of grantmakers focused on climate change in the United States, China, India, Europe and Latin America, and conserving the North American West.
Previously, Jonathan 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. 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.
Prior to that, Jonathan served as the Senior Climate Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at the Department of Energy. He was a key architect of the “Mission Innovation” commitment to double climate and clean energy research and development budgets around the world, and a major contributor to the first ever “Quadrennial Energy Review,” a deep assessment of U.S. energy policy.
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.
See Jonathan Pershing at the Better Futures Forum:
Thursday 19 August, 9.00am - 9.40am AEST
PLENARY - KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Australians’ capacity to lead and innovate on climate