Rick Duke serves as Deputy Special Envoy for Climate, focused on encouraging major economies to define and implement ambitious emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement. He also works through other forums and initiatives to accelerate global progress towards carbon-free energy and to advance complementary “fast cooling” strategies, including rapidly reducing methane emissions. Previously, he was a consultant and Brookings Institution senior fellow. He also served as Special Assistant to President Obama, helping to craft and implement the Climate Action Plan, including defining the 2025 emissions reduction target for the Paris Agreement, spearheading an interagency push for the Kigali Amendment on HFCs to the Montreal Protocol, and authoring the U.S. Mid-Century Strategy for deep decarbonization. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at DOE and worked at NRDC and McKinsey. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton.