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Biden unveils picks to staff White House climate office

Ben Geman
Ben Geman, author of Generate

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Joe Biden's transition team on Thursday rolled out a team of top White House climate aides.

Why it matters: The crew staffing the new White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy will help oversee what the incoming administration says will be an aggressive, government-wide approach to the topic.

Driving the news: The choices include...

Maggie Thomas, a climate adviser on the presidential campaigns of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee, will be the new office's chief of staff.

  • Quick take: The choice will please progressive activists, who were fans of Inslee's expansive platform during his climate-focused primary campaign.

Sonia Aggarwal will be senior adviser for climate policy and innovation. She's a co-founder and VP of the research firm Energy Innovation.

David Hayes, a top Interior Department official in the Obama years, will be special assistant to the president for climate policy. He's coming from a climate-focused center at NYU law school.

Jahi Wise will be senior adviser for climate policy and finance. He's coming from his role as policy director for the Coalition for Green Capital.

Cecilia Martinez will be senior director for environmental justice at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

  • She's coming from her role as co-founder and executive director at the Center for Earth, Energy, and Democracy.

Go deeper

Ben Geman, author of Generate
Jan 28, 2021 - Energy & Environment

Microsoft backs direct air capture player Climeworks

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Microsoft this morning disclosed investments in more climate-related companies as part of efforts to make good on its year-old pledge to become "carbon negative" by 2030.

Driving the news: One company the tech behemoth is staking is Climeworks, a firm looking to scale up deployment of direct air capture technology that removes CO2 already in the atmosphere.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Ben Geman, author of Generate
Jan 29, 2021 - Energy & Environment

Pew survey provides snapshot of immense partisan divide over climate

Reproduced from Pew Research Center; Chart: Axios Visuals

New Pew Research Center polling underscores the immense difference in how much Democrats are concerned about climate change compared to Republicans.

Driving the news: The chart above shows the five issue areas with the largest partisan gaps in Pew's survey of what U.S. adults want the federal government to prioritize this year.

Go deeper (<1 min. read)Arrow
Axios Events
Updated Feb 2, 2021 - Axios Events

Watch: A conversation on corporate America's climate impact

On Tuesday, February 2, Axios' Mike Allen, Ben Geman, and Aja Whitaker-Moore hosted a conversation on corporate America’s climate impact following the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, featuring Microsoft's Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa and The Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah.

Rajiv Shah discussed increasing global inequities as a result of the pandemic, and how these economic divides can be crossed with respect to energy and climate change policies.

  • On the growing gap between the world's wealthy and poor: "COVID-19 is an accelerant of that [economic] divergence. We're now living through the greatest divergence we've seen since World War II and the living standards of people and inequality and inequity as a result of that."
  • On how corporate America has stepped up their commitment to climate change initiatives: "It is going to take much more than a series of corporate commitments to get to net neutrality by 2050. And in fact, I'm optimistic because I've seen companies since [the beginning of 2020] do more."

Lucas Joppa unpacked climate change commitments within the private sector, and how companies have the potential to collectively create change.

  • On the progress Microsoft has made around reducing carbon emissions: "A year ago we committed that by 2030, we'd reduce our emissions by half or more and remove the rest. Over the past calendar year...if we keep on track, we'll see us meeting or achieving our commitments."
  • On setting an example as a large company and modeling scalable solutions: "It's incumbent upon [Microsoft] to do more, but it's also incumbent that we do more in a way that makes it easier for everybody to follow. We know with carbon reduction and carbon removal there's a lot of market maturation and a lot of other societal scale changes that need to happen [around it]."

Thank you Bank of America for sponsoring this event.