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Cathleen Kelly is a senior fellow for Energy and Environment at the Center for American Progress. She specializes in international and U.S. climate mitigation, preparedness, resilience, and sustainable development policy. Kelly served in the Obama administration at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where she led a 20-plus-agency task force to develop a national climate resilience strategy. This strategy helped form the basis of the climate-preparedness pillar of President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan. Kelly also helped formulate the Obama administration’s positions on international sustainable development and climate policy issues.
Previously, Kelly directed the Climate & Energy Program at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, where she led a highly acclaimed paper series and events on climate and clean energy policy that drew the world’s top energy and climate policy players. She also held policy director and senior policy adviser positions at The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Clean Air Policy and was a professor of international and environmental policy at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, or SAIS.
Kelly is an internationally recognized climate policy expert and a regular adviser to U.S. and European officials on environmental policy issues. She is a prize-winning graduate of SAIS, where she earned a master of arts in international relations and energy and environmental policy.
Florida state leaders have an opportunity to support investments in innovative and future-ready transportation, energy systems, and flood protections so that communities can better withstand sea level rise and extreme weather threats.
CAP sent a delegation of staff to Puerto Rico; here’s what we learned.
By creating a Florida Future Fund, state leaders can upgrade crumbling infrastructure while supporting clean and inclusive economic growth; improving neighborhood livability; and protecting the air, water, and natural areas for all Floridians.
In the wake of extreme weather events, Cathleen Kelly and Kristina Costa call on the U.S. Congress to increase their financial support for disaster relief and resilience.
Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the Trump administration must commit to long-term and equitable hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico.
Disaster aid for hurricane-affected areas should focus on creating long-term resilience to extreme weather and supporting communities with the fewest resources to rebuild.
As economic disparities and climate change risks rise, mayors must develop solutions that build resilient communities, create new economic opportunities, and support racial justice.
Congress must help communities across the country—especially those devastated by Hurricane Harvey—become more resilient to more extreme weather, flooding and other climate change risks.
Author Cathleen Kelly warns that President Trump's new executive order will undermine public health and environmental protections, putting the interests of wealthy developers and powerful special interests first.
The budget introduced by House Republicans too closely resembles the president’s imbalanced approach to national security.
As a call to action on climate change, Ms. Mendoza’s fourth-grade class at Gateway Environmental K-8 Learning Center wrote letters to their elected officials asking them to support solutions that will protect their community and future.
Author Cathleen Kelly urges President Donald Trump and Congress to invest in actions and improvements that combat climate change, rather than continue to deny it.
