Treasury Announces New Climate Counselor

WASHINGTON — Today, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen announced the appointment of Ethan Zindler to serve as the Treasury Department’s new Climate Counselor. Mr. Zindler will lead the Treasury Climate Hub, report directly to and advise the Secretary on a broad range of climate matters, and be charged with leading Treasury’s efforts to facilitate and unlock the financing needed for investments to achieve a net-zero economy at home and abroad.

“I am pleased to announce Ethan Zindler as my Climate Counselor and the head of the Treasury Department’s Climate Hub. Ethan will bring analytical rigor and decades of experience in the climate space to this role and to the Treasury Department, and he will build on the Climate Hub’s strong track record of results. That will be essential in the Department’s work as we implement key components of the Inflation Reduction Act, further spur on historic clean energy investments across the United States, and work internationally to help countries meet their own climate goals,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “The threat of climate change has been something that I’ve spoken about for decades, and it’s something that we increasingly see in our daily lives. I believe it is imperative that we continue to take decisive action to fight climate change, for the sake of our planet and for the benefit of the global economy.”

Started in April 2021, Treasury’s Climate Hub was created to implement a coordinated climate policy strategy that uses the full force of the Treasury Department on domestic and international policymaking and leverages finance and financial risk mitigation to confront the threat of climate change. These actions will position the economy for strong and sustainable growth consistent with a net-zero emissions future. 
In its first two years, Treasury’s Climate Hub has brought together the tools, capabilities, and expertise from across the Department – including from Domestic Finance, Economic Policy, International Affairs, and Tax Policy – to develop and advance a robust climate finance agenda.

Treasury’s Climate Hub has been integral to the Department’s historic progress on climate change under Secretary Yellen’s leadership. This includes implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment our nation has ever made in addressing climate change, and building an inclusive clean energy economy. Treasury has also led many of the negotiations with South Africa and Indonesia, two of the highest-emitting emerging markets, to finalize Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs). These efforts culminated in the largest public-private climate finance commitment ever, unlocking billions in public and private financing supporting Indonesia’s and South Africa’s energy transitions. In addition, Treasury has also launched a number of important efforts to better assess climate-related risks to the economy.

For more information on Treasury’s climate work, please see: Climate Change.

ABOUT ETHAN ZINDLER, CLIMATE COUNSELOR

Ethan Zindler most recently served as Head of Americas at BloombergNEF (BNEF), a provider of data, research and analysis on clean power, electric vehicles, carbon credit markets, commodities, and other aspects of the transition to a lower-carbon economy. In this role with BloombergNEF, Zindler managed BNEF research analysts in New York, Washington, London, and Sao Paulo.

Zindler was instrumental in the creation of Climatescope, a public resource that has detailed clean energy investment conditions annually in emerging market economies since 2012. Zindler has written extensively on finding solutions for scaling climate finance in developing nations. He has authored reports on topics pertaining to climate and clean energy with the Climate Investment Funds at the World Bank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and others.

Zindler holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Georgetown University.  He lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife and two daughters.

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