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Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

Our Mission

Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC): The Special Presidential Envoy for Climate is charged with leading U.S. diplomacy to address the climate crisis. Integrated closely with the State Department’s existing expert staff and personnel, including the Office of Global Change (EGC) in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), the Special Presidential Envoy’s team works to ensure that the United States actively engages on climate, including exercising strong U.S. leadership to increase global climate ambition. Key workstreams and focus areas for the Special Presidential Envoy’s team include: constructive engagement in the Paris Agreement and related agreements and processes; driving global greenhouse gas emission reductions so as to keep a 1.5 degree Celsius limit on temperature rise within reach; enhancing adaptation and resilience to climate impacts; climate-aligning financial flows; driving overseas clean energy innovation and competitiveness; and better integrating climate and other areas, including the ocean, biodiversity, the Arctic, and international shipping and aviation activities. For more information, please visit the Department’s climate crisis webpage.

For media inquiries, please contact climatecomms@state.gov.

The Climate Crisis: Working Together for Future Generations

Bold action to tackle the climate crisis is more urgent than ever. The United States is doing its part to build a net zero-emission, resilient future that creates good jobs and ensures a healthy, livable planet for generations to come. For more information, please visit the Department’s climate crisis webpage.  

Climate and Environment

July 19, 2023

Digital Press Briefing with John F. Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

We used as a baseline for our meetings the meeting which had previously taken place between President Biden and President Xi in Bali, Indonesia, where the two leaders agreed to jointly work on the on the issue of the climate crisis and to work with other countries, as well as bilaterally. We both agreed today to continue the bilateral engagement to address the climate crisis, and we also both agreed to do so in the same terminology as a matter of urgency and in recognition of the global and existential nature of this crisis.

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