Longtime climate diplomat Trigg Talley has left his post at State Department at a time when the Trump administration is terminating U.S. policies for addressing rising temperatures and mocking international efforts to reduce fossil fuels.
Talley served for nearly two decades as director of the Office of Global Change, where he oversaw U.S. engagement in global climate negotiations and American cooperation on issues such as adaptation and clean energy.
The office has played a central role in the United Nations’ climate talks by helping to finalize the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015 and more recently to establish a fund for compensating climate-damaged nations. The Trump administration quit the board of that fund earlier this month.
“The career team at every agency, including at the State Department, is an essential reservoir of knowledge and wisdom and relationships that every administration draws on to advance its policy objectives,” said Rick Duke, former deputy special envoy for climate under President Joe Biden. “We benefited immensely from Trigg’s expertise, wisdom and relationships and strategic sense.”
