Andrew Light

A man in a dark suit, white shirt, and blue tie stands smiling in front of an American flag
Titles and Organizations

Distinguished University Professor; Director, Institute for Philosophy & Public Policy; University Affiliate (College of Science)

Contact Information

alight1@gmu.edu
Horizon Hall 6252
Fairfax, Virginia 22030

Biography

Andrew Light is Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Atmospheric Sciences. In January 2025 he returned to Mason after four years in public service as Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Over the course of his career, Andrew has made significant contributions and held positions of leadership both in public policy and in the academy. For the last twenty years he built on his previous academic work to join the front lines of international climate and energy policy. Most recently he served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs, nominated by President Biden on April 28, 2021 and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 11, 2021.

Leading a team of over 100 civil servants and other political appointees, and in cooperation with hundreds of colleagues throughout the Energy Department, the U.S. National Laboratories, and other U.S. government partners, Andrew and team accelerated and expanded some three dozen bilateral clean energy dialogues, forums, councils, and partnerships with countries from all regions of the world, including the landmark Net Zero World initiative, and a massive expansion of work with India, a country of special expertise and importance for Andrew. This all of the above approach accelerated U.S. cooperation on nuclear, renewables, abated fossil fuels, and new technologies such as hydrogen and advanced geothermal further than they had ever gone before, all to respond to the threat of climate change, grow good-paying American energy jobs in the burgeoning global clean energy market, and overcome legacy diplomatic and commercial hurdles, unleashing billions of dollars of clean energy investment.

Over the last four years in multilateral forums, Andrew was: lead U.S. negotiator and Ministerial Sherpa for the energy tracks of the G7, G20, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation platform (APEC, including the 2023 Ministerial), and energy sector initiatives under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (in particular as chief architect of the COP 29 1500GW Global Energy Storage target); Vice Chair of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency (IEA -- including lead for the 2022 Ministerial); led transformative changes to the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation platforms -- especially the largest and most ambitious ministerial of both organizations, the 2022 Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh; and with his team expanded and strengthened several regional energy and climate cooperation platforms, in particular, P-TECC, the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation, with 24 Eastern European Countries on clean energy, climate, and energy security (watch opening of 2024 Ministerial here), and the U.S.-Baltics 3+1 Energy Dialogue focused in large measure to provide sustained technical and diplomatic support for the historic desynchronization of the Baltic States from the Russian controlled electricity grid, and synchronization with the EU grid on February 9th, which Andrew attended in person in his private capacity on Baltic Energy Independence Day.

In addition to this work on clean energy, Andrew was one of the lead U.S. government officials working on the U.S. and allied response to the global energy impacts of Russia's war on Ukraine. This work with his team included: negotiating the two biggest collective oil actions in history from the International Energy Agency in March and April 2022 to respond to supply disruptions and stabilize markets; working with EU and non-EU European countries on diversifying gas supply away from Russia and rapidly accelerating Europe's transition away from fossil fuels; coordinating with the Department of Treasury on the design and implementation of the price cap on Russian oil as well as other sanctions; and, starting in December 2022, leading the effort with his team to deliver emergency high voltage electric grid equipment to Ukraine after Russian began its sustained and continuing attack on the civilian population through a systematic and reckless assault on Ukraine's energy system. All of this work at DOE was fully supported and advanced by Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Deputy Secretary David Turk.

Previously, from 2013-2016, Andrew served as Senior Adviser and India Counselor to the U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change, and as a Staff Climate Adviser in Secretary of State John Kerry's Office of Policy Planning in the U.S. Department of State. In this capacity he was Co-Chair of the U.S.-India Joint Working Group on Combating Climate Change, which included over a dozen tracks of significant cooperation on climate for the first time in the two countries' diplomatic history, Chair of the Climate Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals across all agencies for the U.S. government, and served on the senior strategy team for the UN climate negotiations.

In recognition of this work, Andrew was awarded an Administrator's Gold Medal Award from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration in December 2024 for work that resolved a more than decade long dispute between the U.S. and the Republic of Korea on civil nuclear cooperation, and reinforcing export control regimes in both countries, which helped to foster a companion private sector agreement; in January 2023, a Secretary of Energy Achievement Award for collective work exhibiting "extraordinary dedication to the Presidential-level commitment to provide emergency energy assistance to Ukraine following Russia's invasion"; a shared Superior Honor Award, from the U.S. Department of State in July 2016, for “contributions to the U.S. effort that made the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, where the landmark Paris Agreement was concluded, a historic success"; and in June 2017 the inaugural Public Philosophy Award, from the International Society for Environmental Ethics, which was then designated the annual "Andrew Light Award for Public Philosophy".

Between these government positions, Andrew pursued policy advocacy as Distinguished Senior Fellow in the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., primarily leading alternative "track two" negotiations on U.S.-China, U.S.-India, and U.S.-EU climate and energy cooperation, and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he was chief adviser on international climate policy to the center's founder and chairman, John Podesta, working on a wide variety of efforts, especially including mitigation of short-lived but highly disruptive climate pollutants, such as HFCs, methane, and black carbon.

In those capacities, as a member of the GMU faculty, and individually, he has contributed to over 20 major policy reports, including, Reflecting Sunlight: Recommendations for Solar Geoengineering Research and Research Governance (National Academies of Science, 2021), Jay Inslee's Plan for Global Climate Mobilization (2020), Delivering on America's Pledge: Achieving Climate Progress (Bloomberg Philanthropies, 2020), which analyzed the scope and resilience of U.S. non-federal action on climate change during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fourth U.S National Climate Assessment, Climate Change Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States, (USGCRP, 2018), and Ramping Up Governance of the Global Environmental Commons (World Resources Institute, 2019).

In his academic work Andrew is the author of over 100 articles and book chapters on climate change, restoration ecology, and urban sustainability, and has authored, co-authored, and edited 19 books, including The Routledge Companion to Environmental Ethics (Routledge, 2022), Environmental Values (Routledge, 2008), Controlling Technology (Prometheus, 2005), Moral and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice (MIT, 2003), Technology and the Good Life? (Chicago, 2000), and Environmental Pragmatism (Routledge, 1996). He has previously taught at a variety of institutions, including the Environmental Conservation Program at NYU and the School of Public Affairs and Department of Philosophy at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Selected Reports

Reflecting Sunlight: Recommendations for Solar Geoengineering Research and Research Governance (Washington, D.C.: National Academies of Science 2021)

An International Climate Agenda for the Next Administration (2020)

Delivering on America's Pledge: Achieving Climate Progress (New York: Bloomberg Philanthropies 2020)

Ramping up Governance of the Global Environmental Commons: What Do Theory and History Tell Us? (Washington, D.C.:  World Resources Institute, February 2019).

Climate Change Impacts, Risks and Adaptation in the U.S.:  Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA 4), Volume II.  (Washington, D.C.:  U.S. Global Change Research Program, November 2018).  Review Editor for Chapter 29, “Mitigation:  Avoiding and Reducing Long-Term Risks.”

Strengthening Nationally Determined Contributions to Catalyze Actions That Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (Washington, D.C.:  World Resources Institute, October 2018).

Governing Solar Radiation Management (Washington, D.C.: Forum for Solar Radiation Management, October 2018).

Proposal for a North American Climate Strategy.  (Washington, D.C.:  Center for American Progress and World Resources Institute, June 2016).

Carbon Market Crossroads: New Ideas for Harnessing Global Markets to Confront Climate Change. (Washington, D.C.: Climate Advisers and Center for American Progress, April 2013).

40 x 35: A Zero Carbon Energy Target for the World’s Largest Economies. (Washington, D.C.: Center for American Progress, March 2013).

The U.S. Role in International Climate Finance: A Blueprint for Near Term Leadership. (Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Climate Protection and Center for American Progress, December 2010).

A Roadmap for U.S.-China Cooperation on Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Washington, D.C.:  Center for American Progress and Asia Society, November 2009.

Media Highlights

Watch Andrew's 2023 testimony and Q&A before the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee in the hearing "One Year Later: The Impact of the Russian Federation's War in Ukraine on European and Global Energy Security."

Listen to Andrew's 2023 interview with the Department of Energy's Direct Current podcast, Keeping the Lights on in Ukraine, about the work of his Office of International Affairs, sending over 890 pieces of high voltage emergency equipment to Ukraine starting in December 2022, in response to the Russian attacks on grid.

Read Andrew's interview with India's "Light's On" on the recent past and potential future for U.S.-India cooperation on climate change and clean energy in 2020.

Watch Andrew's Mason Impact discussion of climate change, COVID-19, and creating a sustainable recovery in 2020.

Watch Andrew's in-depth 2019 interview and questions from callers on CSPAN's Washington Journal on the current state of domestic and international climate policy and politics.

Watch Andrew's CBS interview on the release of the Fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment, and listen to his NPR All Things Considered interview on the assessment in 2018.

Listen to Andrew's interviews on NPR's To the Point and Marketplace on the announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2017.

Listen to Andrew's interview on NPR's All Things Considered on historic agreement in the Montreal Protocol to get rid of the most potent greenhouse gases in 2016.

Curriculum Vitae

Areas of Research

  • International energy and climate policy and diplomacy
  • Advanced clean energy technology cooperation and development
  • Environmental policy and ethics
  • Risk analysis