WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Climate Alliance today announced that Julie Cerqueira has been named the Alliance’s new Executive Director to support the Alliance states in the development and execution of strategy to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Cerqueira will help advance the climate and clean energy policy priorities of the Alliance’s governors and their offices by facilitating dialogue, promoting the sharing of peer-to-peer expertise, and identifying multi-state policy and programmatic interventions. Serving most recently as a climate policy advisor in the U.S. Department of State, Cerqueira brings to the Alliance a wealth of experience driving multi- stakeholder climate coalitions and launching high-level initiatives that make tangible progress toward addressing the global climate challenge. The U.S. Climate Alliance Secretariat is housed at the UN Foundation.

Cerqueira most recently served as a Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Climate Change, later joining the Office of Global Change, both with the U.S. Department of State. In this role, she led U.S. engagement in strategic partnerships including the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and helped launch high profile climate deliverables and commitments for key milestones including the North America Leaders Summit, the G20 Leaders Summit, and the U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Cerqueira also led the Department’s engagement with sub- national governments on climate change to build a groundswell of support that helped secure adoption of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Prior to her work in the federal government, Cerqueira worked with developing countries on designing sectoral climate policies at a Washington, DC-based climate think tank, and spent four years in Southeast Asia working with local communities, governments and the private sector on environmental projects and promotion of policy reforms.