Andrew Light

Biography

Andrew Light (University of Chicago and George Mason University), has held a variety of leadership positions in government, NGOs, and universities. From 2021-2025 he served as United States Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs, directing a team of over one hundred civil servants and political appointees to help accelerate a global clean energy transition while ensuring energy security. From 2013-2016 he served as Senior Adviser and India Counselor to the U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change, as well as a staff member for climate in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning, working on the Paris Agreement and other platforms for climate cooperation. At NGOs, he has been a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, where he led some of the highest non-governmental bilateral dialogues on climate and energy cooperation between the U.S. and China, India, and the EU, and Senior Fellow and Director of International Climate and Energy Policy at the Center for American Progress. Andrew is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth at the University of Chicago, and Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy, Philosophy, and Atmospheric Sciences in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Andrew is the author of over 100 articles and book chapters on climate change, restoration ecology, and urban sustainability, has authored and edited 19 books, and co-authored over 20 major policy reports, including the National Academies of Sciences 2021 report, Reflecting Sunlight: Recommendations for Solar Geoengineering Research and Research Governance.