About the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action
The Commission on Accelerating Climate Action was formed in 2021 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Commission’s work answers two core questions: 1) What policies would most effectively and equitably remove barriers to climate action? 2) How can the United States accelerate climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for all Americans? While the science of climate change is well-established, the Commission leverages its diverse composition to identify strategies for building a durable and inclusive political coalition for climate action. In the first phase of the project, the Commission interviewed seventy experts across three domains—communication, the private sector, and human and national security—which enabled the Commission to assess the national landscape on climate action.
Commission Members
Benjamin Backer
American Conservation Coalition
Phyllis L. Bayer
Dumbarton Strategies, LLC
Mitchell Bernard
Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Philip Bredesen
State of Tennessee; Silicon Ranch
Patricia Cochran
Alaska Native Science Commission
Ertharin Cousin
Food Systems for the Future
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
L. Kealoha Fox
Institute for Climate & Peace
Tim Guinee
Climate Actors
Rebecca Henderson
Harvard University
Mitchell C. Hescox
Evangelical Environmental Network
Charles O. Holliday, Jr.
Mission Possible Partnership
Russel L. Honoré
Joint Task Force Katrina, Leadership, Safety & Global Preparedness Authority
Bob Inglis
republicEn.org
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
University of Pennsylvania
Alexander Karsner
X (Alphabet Inc.)
Elizabeth Kolbert
The New Yorker
John Paul Mejia
Sunrise Movement
Kate Orff
SCAPE
David W. Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Gary Roughead
Hoover Institution
Linda Rudolph
Public Health Institute; Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health
Roger Sant
The Summit Foundation
J. Marshall Shepherd
University of Georgia
Doreen Stabinsky
College of the Atlantic
Hilary Tompkins
Hogan Lovells
Elke Weber
Princeton University