WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Todd Stern, a key adviser during her husband's presidency, as a special envoy for climate change Monday.
"(The) urgency of the global climate crisis must not be underestimated," Clinton said when making the announcement. "Nor should the science behind it or the facts on the ground be ignored or dismissed. The time for realism and action is now."
President Barack Obama and she know climate change is global and "all nations must work together to find solutions," Clinton said.
"Under President Obama, America will take the lead in addressing this challenge, both by making commitments of our own and engaging other nations to do the same," she said.
Stern was a senior adviser in the Clinton White House, where he coordinated the administration's overall effort on climate change, and was a White House representative at the U.N. climate negotiations in Kyoto and Buenos Aires. Since leaving government, the secretary said, Stern has been with the Center for American Progress, a think tank.
"President Obama and Secretary Clinton have left no doubt that a new day is dawning in the U.S. approach to climate change and clean energy," Stern said. "The time for denial, delay and dispute is over. The time for the United States to take up its rightful place at the negotiating table is here."
