BERLIN (AP) — Jennifer Morgan, who heads the environmental group Greenpeace International, is to become Germany's new climate envoy, officials said Tuesday.
She will be taking on a key role in the new center-left government that has pledged to ramp up Germany's efforts to curb global warming, including through its presidency of the Group of Seven major economies.
Morgan is to be formally announced in the new role Wednesday by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a member of the environmentalist Green Party , officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because her appointment — first reported by German weekly Der Spiegel — still needs to be approved by the Cabinet.
The American-born campaigner, who has co-led Greenpeace since 2016, has been a prominent figure in international climate diplomacy for years.
Ahead of last year’s U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Morgan warned in an AP interview that countries and companies could use the summit to “greenwash” their ongoing pollution of the planet.
Germany aims to stop adding further greenhouse gas to the atmosphere by 2045, one of the earliest “net zero” targets set by a major industrialized nation. But the government recently acknowledged that it is not on track to meet its emissions goals for 2030.
Climate activists have also blasted Germany's plans to increase the use of natural gas — a fossil fuel — until renewable sources can meet the energy demands of Europe's biggest economy.
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