Catherine McKenna, Canada’s former Minister of Environment and Climate Change, is joining Columbia University as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow with Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP). In this role, she plans to work on practical solutions to help scale climate action with CGEP and the new Columbia Climate School. The areas she will focus on include: accelerating the transition from coal to clean energy, advancing work on carbon pricing, border carbon adjustments and carbon markets, and supporting women’s climate leadership.

“The climate threat is the greatest crisis facing humanity today. We need new models of thinking and systems change to ambitiously tackle climate change now,” said McKenna. “I’m excited to work with the Center on Global Energy Policy and the Columbia Climate School, the first school of its kind in the US — to engage with its incredible students and faculty on practical solutions to the climate crisis. We urgently need to accelerate the global transition from coal to clean energy and ensure a just transition for workers and communities. We also need to expand carbon pricing and move forward on border carbon adjustments to address competitiveness and develop more effective carbon markets. And critically, we need to support and empower women and girls who are leading the fight against climate change.”

McKenna is the founder and principal of Climate and Nature Solutions and recently launched “Women Leading on Climate” at COP26 in Glasgow last November. As Canada’s first Minister of Environment and Climate Change in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, she was a lead negotiator of the Paris Agreement (in particular Article 6 concerning carbon markets) before introducing and successfully defending landmark legislation that established a carbon price across Canada. She also led efforts to phase out coal and established Canada’s first Just Transition Taskforce for workers and communities, reduce plastics in oceans and waterways, and double the amount of nature protected in Canada in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.

“Catherine is a tour de force,” said Jason Bordoff, CGEP Director. “Her energy and spirit along with her leadership and practical experience are what’s needed if we’re to have a meaningful impact in solving the climate crisis. We’re delighted she chose to come to Columbia to bring all these qualities and much more to the students and faculty working on these critical issues.”

As Minister of Environment and Climate Change, McKenna helped establish a number of international initiatives including the Powering Past Coal Coalition (with Canada, the UK and Bloomberg Philanthropies), the Ministerial on Climate Action (MOCA), the Women Kicking it on Climate Summit and the Nature Champions Summit. McKenna was Co-Chair of the World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, and helped develop the G7 Ocean Plastics Charter. She has worked closely with members of the Obama and Biden administrations on Canada-US and international climate and infrastructure agreements and policy.

She later became Minister of Infrastructure and Communities where she made historic investments in public transit and green and resilient infrastructure, leveraged private sector investment to get more public infrastructure built through the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and led the development of Canada’s first National Infrastructure Assessment to drive Canada to net-zero emissions by 2050.

A mother of three, today she is focused on scaling climate and nature-based solutions to drastically reduce global emissions by 2030 including by empowering women and girls and through public-private partnerships.

Tune in to the latest Columbia Energy Exchange podcast with McKenna as she discusses her life and this new stage in her career. 

Read Catherine McKenna’s full bio here.

NEW YORK – Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy announced today that former Chair of the California Air Resources Board Mary Nichols will join the Center as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow. At CGEP, Nichols will advance smart, actionable and evidence-based energy and climate solutions through research, education and dialogue. She will contribute to energy and climate scholarship at the Center and across the University, engage with the University’s vibrant student community, and participate in public and private events, workshops and lectures organized by the Center.

“Perhaps no one has done more to champion environmental protection in the US over the last half century than Mary Nichols. Mary has a long and distinguished career in public service and environmental policy and has pioneered several landmark climate initiatives, including California’s cap-and-trade program. She’s known for enacting tough, legally sound regulations on pollution control and conservation that have served as models for national and international environmental law,” said Jason Bordoff, Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs and Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy. “We are thrilled that Mary will be joining the Center as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow to help advance smart, actionable and evidence-based energy and climate solutions through research, education and dialogue.”

Over a career as an environmental lawyer spanning over 45 years, Nichols has played a key role in California and the nation’s progress toward healthy air. She most recently served as the Chair of the California Air Resources Board where she led the Board in crafting California’s internationally recognized climate action plan. 

“Climate change is already upon us, and even as people begin to experience the effects of a warming planet, global emissions are still rising. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to look for safe and sustainable ways to eliminate carbon from the atmosphere, and we’ll need to go far beyond business as usual,” said Nichols. “I’m proud to join the team at the Center on Global Energy Policy, an established leader taking an interdisciplinary and pragmatic approach to addressing the climate crisis through energy policy. I look forward to being a part of their work.”

CGEP’s Distinguished Fellows Program brings veterans of public and private sector life into the Columbia community. Distinguished Fellows serve as adjunct research scholars, collaborate on articles and op-eds published through CGEP, participate in public events at Columbia University, speak to campus and faculty groups, and may teach a course or supervise a student research team.

ABOUT MARY NICHOLS

Mary Nichols is the former Chair of the California Air Resources Board, where she occupied the attorney seat. She has served on the Board under Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. (1975–82 and 2010–18), Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (2007–2010) and Governor Gavin Newsom (2019–present). She also served as California’s Secretary for Natural Resources (1999–2003), appointed by Gov. Gray Davis. When not working for the State of California, Nichols was a senior staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council; Assistant Administrator for U.S. EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, in the administration of President William Jefferson Clinton; and headed the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. Over a career as an environmental lawyer spanning over 45 years, Nichols has played a key role in California and the nation’s progress toward healthy air. She has also led the Board in crafting California’s internationally recognized climate action plan. Nichols is a graduate of Yale Law School and serves on the faculty at the UCLA School of Law.

ABOUT THE CENTER ON GLOBAL ENERGY POLICY

The Center on Global Energy Policy advances smart, actionable and evidence-based energy and climate solutions through research, education and dialogue. Based at one of the world’s top research universities, what sets CGEP apart is our ability to communicate academic research, scholarship and insights in formats and on timescales that are useful to decision makers. We bridge the gap between academic research and policy — complementing and strengthening the world-class research already underway at Columbia University, while providing support, expertise, and policy recommendations to foster stronger, evidence-based policy. Recently, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger announced the creation of a new Climate School — the first in the nation — to tackle the most urgent environmental and public health challenges facing humanity.