Conversation with Global Climate Leaders
TODD STERN
Special Envoy for Climate Change under President Obama
Todd Stern is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a nonresident distinguished fellow at the Asia Society, concentrating on climate change. Stern served during the Obama administration, from January 2009 until April 2016, as the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change and led the U.S. effort in negotiating the Paris Agreement and all climate negotiations in the seven years leading to Paris.
Stern is currently focused on writing, speaking and teaching about climate change. His book Landing the Paris Climate Agreement: How It Happened, Why It Matters, and What Comes Next was published October 8, 2024, by MIT Press. It was named by the Financial Times as one of the four best books of 2024 in the Environment category.
Stern initially started to engage on global climate change in 1997 while serving under President Clinton in the White House as Staff Secretary and helped coordinate the administration’s position during the Kyoto and Buenos Aires negotiations in 1997 and 1998. From 1999 to 2001, Stern served as counselor to Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. He got his start in politics in 1989 working on Senator Patrick Leahy’s Judiciary Committee staff.
In 2016 and again in 2025, Stern taught at Yale Law School as a Visiting Lecturer.
He has written for various publications, including Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Yale Environment 360, The American Interest, and The Washington Quarterly. He has appeared on CNN, the BBC, MSNBC, and NPR, among other outlets. Stern graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
JOHN PODESTA
Former White House Chief of Staff under President Clinton, and Senior Advisor to the President for Climate Policy under President Biden
John Podesta is the Founder and Chair of the Washington, D.C- based think tank Center for American Progress. He previously served as Senior Advisor to President Biden for International Climate Policy. He initially joined the Biden White House in September 2022 as the Senior Advisor for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation (OCEII) to lead the rollout of clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Podesta served as counselor to President Barack Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. He was a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Podesta notably served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton during the second administration. He chaired Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016.
Podesta is also the founder and former Chair of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
A Chicago native, Podesta is a graduate of Knox College and the Georgetown University Law Center, where he is currently a visiting professor of law.
MELISSA HOFFER
Climate Chief of Massachusetts, and Incoming President of Vermont Law and Graduate School
Melissa Hoffer is Massachusetts’ first ever Climate Chief. She joined the Biden Administration as a Day 1 political appointee, serving as the Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency. She led the EPA’s Office of General Counsel through the transition until November 2021, and continued to serve as Principal Deputy General Counsel. Prior to that, she worked in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office as Chief of the Environmental Protection Division beginning in 2012 and was named Chief of AG Healey’s newly formed Energy and Environment Bureau in 2015. Hoffer oversaw the work of the Bureau’s attorneys on matters including prosecuting civil and criminal enforcement of environmental laws, proceedings before the DPU, energy policy, and defensive cases. She led the Office’s litigation against ExxonMobil for deceiving Massachusetts investors and consumers about the risk climate change poses to Exxon’s business and global financial markets, and the impacts of its fossil fuel products on climate change. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, Hoffer held senior roles at the Conservation Law Foundation and practiced for many years as a litigator and environmental lawyer at WilmerHale. She also served as a law clerk for the Honorable Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander, Boston Federal District Court. She received a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, Certificate in Environmental Management from Tufts University, M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts, and B.A. from Hampshire College. In her spare time, she raises a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats at her farm in Barre, Massachusetts