Andrew Light
Senior Fellow
Expertise: International climate and energy policy, restoration ecology and biodiversity, regulatory policy for new and emerging technologies, climate and justice
Andrew Light, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress specializing in international climate and science policy and a Professor at George Mason University where he is director of the Center for Global Ethics. He leads American Progress’s work on international climate and energy issues, including efforts involving the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Major Economies Forum, the Clean Energy Ministerial, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and other bilateral processes.
At CAP Light has worked primarily on international climate finance, mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants, and land use change, all of which have been the subject of several major CAP reports. In his academic career Light is an internationally recognized expert on the social and regulatory dimensions of terrestrial restoration ecology, urban ecology, and new and emerging technologies. On all of these topics, he has written over 80 scholarly articles and authored, co-authored, and edited 17 books including: Environmental Values (2008); Controlling Technology (2005); Moral and Political Reasoning in Environmental Practice (2003); and Environmental Pragmatism (1996).
His doctoral work was at the University of California at Riverside and UCLA, and he completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in environmental risk assessment at the University of Alberta, Canada. Before moving to Washington, D.C., he taught at a number of institutions, most recently, NYU and the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a frequent advisor to various agencies on environmental and technology policy, including the State Department, the Department of Energy, the National Security Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation. He co-chairs the U.S. International Climate Leadership Group, and is on the advisory board of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.