Sue Biniaz is currently serving as a Deputy to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
For more than 25 years, Ms. Biniaz served as the lead climate lawyer for the U.S. State Department. In that capacity, she played a central role in the negotiation of all the major international climate agreements, including the 2015 Paris Agreement.
During her tenure as a Deputy Legal Adviser at the State Department, she supervised the Treaty Office and issues related to the environment, law of the sea, East Asian Affairs, Western Hemisphere Affairs, human rights and refugees, law enforcement, and private international law. Prior to that, she led the State Department’s legal office for Oceans, Environment, and Science, as well as the legal office for European and Canadian Affairs.
Between 2017 and 2020, Ms. Biniaz taught at Yale University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago, and was a Senior Fellow at the UN Foundation, Senior Adviser at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Climate Advisers. She continues to be a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
Ms. Biniaz attended Yale College, earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, and clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.