Andrew Light, Ph.D., is Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs. He started at the Department of Energy on January 20, 2021, leading the Office of International Affairs as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary before his nomination by President Biden as Assistant Secretary on April 28, and confirmation by the U.S. Senate on August 11, 2021. Since starting at DOE, Mr Light has led the department in initiating and expanding some three dozen bilateral energy dialogues, forums, councils, and partnerships with countries from all regions of the world. His primary focus in these forums has been to increase their work on clean energy and energy security – whether renewables, nuclear, abated fossil fuels, or new technologies such as hydrogen – in response to the threat of climate change, and to grow good-paying American energy jobs in the burgeoning global clean energy market.

With respect to multilateral forums, Mr Light is Vice Chair of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Chair of the IEA Ministerial Bureau,  U.S. representative to the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation Steering Committees, lead U.S. negotiator and Ministerial Sherpa for the energy tracks of the G7 and G20, and directs all U.S. Department of Energy engagement at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other global platforms. He is working now on launching the first Global Clean Energy Action Forum, to be held September 21-23 in Pittsburgh, PA, which will combine the 13^th meeting of the Clean Energy Ministerial and the 7^th meeting of the Mission Innovation ministerial with a broader, more comprehensive and inclusive clean energy business, innovation, and civil society forum.