Alan
Yu

Senior Vice President, National Security and International Policy

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Alan Yu is the senior vice president for National Security and International Policy at American Progress. Yu has three decades of experience working on some of the world’s biggest global challenges, from energy and environment to human rights to international trade to nonproliferation.

Yu previously served at the U.S. Department of State as an adviser to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. He was responsible for diplomatic engagement on climate policy with countries across the Indo-Pacific and spearheaded efforts at the State Department to elevate and integrate climate policy into U.S. diplomacy.

Yu had a previous stint at American Progress from 2019 to 2021, as a senior fellow and director for international climate policy with the Energy and Environment department.

Yu served from 2014 to 2018 as the U.S. Department of Energy’s director for Asian affairs, where he coordinated department efforts to execute a unified strategy in U.S. energy policy and technical engagement with countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia.

Prior to the Department of Energy, Yu served for more than two decades as a U.S. diplomat, with postings in Washington, China, Japan, and Afghanistan. Earlier, Yu was a middle school teacher in the Central African Republic as a Peace Corps volunteer.

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South Korea Climate Action: A Moment for Elevated Ambition Article
Presidents Yoon and Biden in front of U.S. and South Korean flags

South Korea Climate Action: A Moment for Elevated Ambition

As South Korea sees a political transition, there is an opportunity for elevated U.S.-South Korea cooperation and ambition to accelerate the latter’s climate action.

Alan Yu, Hyunwoo Roh

Taiwan’s Election: PRC Interference and Its Implications for the 2024 Election Landscape Article
Election workers in Taipei count voting ballots.

Taiwan’s Election: PRC Interference and Its Implications for the 2024 Election Landscape

The Democratic Progressive Party’s triumph in Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election signals Taiwan’s resilience against the People’s Republic of China’s coordinated and intense interference efforts; but it also accentuates the critical need for nations worldwide to formulate robust strategies against escalating threats of interference, thereby safeguarding the integrity of global democratic processes.

How Japan can drive faster toward a clean-energy future In the News

How Japan can drive faster toward a clean-energy future

In an op-ed for Kyodo News, Alan Yu and Glen S. Fukushima argue that while Japan’s support for new research into clean energy alternatives should be commended, the nation should also invest more heavily in deploying technologies that have already proven successful, such as solar and wind power.

Kyodo News

Alan Yu, Glen S. Fukushima

The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Papers Search Fact Sheet
The Mar-a-Lago resort is seen against a stormy gray cloud with an American flag in front.

The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Papers Search

Former President Trump didn’t just abscond with classified material he wasn’t allowed to have; he may have gravely harmed U.S. national security at the same time.

Alan Yu, Peter Juul

Renewed U.S.-India Climate Cooperation Report
 (Indian workers install solar panels at the Gujarat solar park in the Charanka village of the Patan district on April 14, 2012.)

Renewed U.S.-India Climate Cooperation

The United States and India can collaborate to rapidly catalyze foreign institutional investment in India’s green transition, which would significantly influence the global effort to combat climate change.

Kanika Chawla, Alan Yu, Rita Cliffton

What a Biden-Modi Initiative To Spur India’s Green Transition Should Look Like Fact Sheet
 (Kashmiri residents pluck saffron flowers as they take part in the harvest of saffron at a farm in Pampore on the outskirts of Srinagar, India, on October 29, 2020.)

What a Biden-Modi Initiative To Spur India’s Green Transition Should Look Like

The United States and India have an opportunity to partner to catalyze foreign institutional investment in India’s green transition—a critical contribution to drive progress in the global effort to combat climate change.

Kanika Chawla, Alan Yu, Rita Cliffton

An International Climate Agenda for the Biden Administration In the News

An International Climate Agenda for the Biden Administration

Alan Yu and others write about the steps the incoming Biden administration must take to address the climate crisis.

U.S. International Climate Agenda

Jake Schmidt, Brendan Guy, Alan Yu, 1 More Carla Frisch

An International Climate Road Map for the Next President Article
The sun rises over an industrial port in North Charleston, South Carolina. (Getty/Corbis/Andrew Lichtenstein)

An International Climate Road Map for the Next President

As the Trump administration begins its official withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, it is important to consider what climate policy actions a future president can take to get American global climate leadership back on track.

Alan Yu

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