Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: US President-elect Joe Biden Thursday announced appointments of key members of his climate team, which includes Pakistan-born Ali Zaidi who will serve as deputy White House Climate Coordinator.
Zaidi, 33, currently New York’s deputy secretary for energy and environment, is the is the highest ranking Pakistani-American in the Biden administration. He will work under Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under former President Barack Obama and now leads a major advocacy group, to coordinate the new administration’s domestic climate agenda.
“This brilliant, tested, trailblazing team will be ready on day one to confront the existential threat of climate change with a unified national response rooted in science and equity. They share my belief that we have no time to waste to confront the climate crisis, protect our air and drinking water, and deliver justice to communities that have long shouldered the burdens of environmental harms,” Biden said in a statement.A press release issued by Biden’s transition team described Zaidi as “a leading climate expert and longtime advisor to the president-elect,” noting that he helped draft and implement the Obama-Biden Administration’s Climate Action Plan and negotiate the Paris Climate Agreement.
