The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2017 9 that climate change and environmental challenges more broadly are going away. And we can still hope that the United States government will continue to play a constructive role in bringing people and countries together. U.S. engagement will continue, through the states and cities, through governors andmayors, non-government organizations and U.S. businesses. We begin with FSO Tim Lattimer’s account of how the United States led the way to the Paris Agreement. Lattimer argues that no matter what this adminis- tration’s posture is on the agreement, the climate change challenge will loom larger and larger, affecting vital U.S. interests around the world—and U.S. diplomats must be involved. In “It’s Not Just about Paris: Inter- national Climate Action Today,” form er Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change Karen Florini and public policy professor Ann Florini lay out themany ways that non-U.S. government entities are becoming deeply engaged on climate change, includ- ing cities and businesses.The world is moving forward on climate change with or without USG involvement, they argue, and the United States should not leave the table. LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Climate Change Diplomacy BY SHAWN DORMAN L ast fall, some eight months ago, the FSJ Editorial Board selected envi- ronmental diplomacy as the focus topic for this July-August issue. The Paris Agreement on climate change had been signed by the United States and all other countries of the world but two, and had entered into force in November 2016. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry was personally involved in the intense all-night negotiations that led to the final accord. It was a great story of diplomatic success and of U.S. global leadership in cooperation with allies and adversaries alike. Last fall we were not thinking that as we put the issue together the U.S. president would announce that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. We did not foresee that environmental diplomacy would become a toxic topic, rather than a natural place for U.S. leadership. Even with today’s uncertainty, and because of it, we think this month’s focus is timely and a good reminder of diplo- macy’s critical role in meeting international challenges. Fewwould argue FSO Jason Donovan shares the ground-level story of the “Path to PACE,” how the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, a bilateral agreement between the United States and India, helped create a $4 billion bilateral clean energy market. Then Todd Evans, an energy manager in the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, shows how the State Department has adopted solar power in “Solar Overseas: Harnessing the Sun to Power U.S. Embassies.” Finally, an article from the May 1978 FSJ , “Decade of the Environment,” gives an account of the early U.S. leadership on environmental diplomacy, including the Nixon administration’s 1970 creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and how that inspired other nations to follow with their own national EPAs. In one of two great features this month, “Making It Work: Conversations with Female Ambassadors,” Leslie Bas- sett shares excerpts from extensive inter- views she did with seven ambassadors. And we asked writer and frequent Jour- nal contributor Donna Gorman for an update on how Foreign Service families are coping with the current hiring freeze. Her “Out in the Cold” describes the crisis for family members and embassies. In Speaking Out, Ambassador (ret.) Bill Burns shares his remarks from Foreign Affairs Day, his perspective on “The Value and Purpose of American Diplomacy.” As always, we want to hear from you. Respond to the articles in this issue or raise another topic of interest by sending in your letters and article submissions. n Shawn Dorman is the editor of The Foreign Service Journal. Climate change and shifting weather patterns are not the Tinker Bells of science or of policy. Disbelief, or denial, or a suspension of research will not make melting icecaps, rising sea levels, desertification and floods go away. …There is change, and it affects human security. —Ambassador (ret.) Barbara Bodine in her foreword to “New Challenges to Human Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility,” an April 2017 report by Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. a