Name? Jennifer Morgan
Westphalian identity? US American and soon to be German
Age? 64
Why is she in the news? Jennifer Morgan was leading the environmental protection organisation Greenpeace International for the past five years. This morning, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock appointed Morgan as a special representative for international climate policy at the Federal Foreign Office.
Why do we care? Because this is a big move to make for both women. Jennifer Morgan is now becoming part of a government she has heavily criticised in the past and gets a chance to do it better herself. For Baerbock it is another step towards her envisioned feminist and green foreign policy. Both of them have raised expectations and will now have to follow through!
Why should you care? If they succeed it might help save the planet where you live. Baerbock and Morgan said they would push for technology transfer from richer to poorer nations to lift millions of people out of poverty as part of industrial heavy-weight Germany’s efforts to pave the way for the developing world, You should care 5/10 about these big announcements, but if they are actually followed through, you have to care 10/10.
Who else cares? China’s President Xi. Morgan is known to be very familiar with China but also a China critic. Xi started with very ambitious goals for China’s carbon neutrality by 2060, but recently took a step back as the climate policies were attributed to power shortages in cities and industries. Two reasons for Morgan to start with China …
Any further comments? The appointment of Morgan coincides with Germany’s presidency of the G7. Chancellor Scholz already announced Germany would focus its efforts during its presidency on the climate, however, this was before Putin became the main talking point of any international meeting. It remains to be seen how influential Morgan can become over the G7 agenda amidst the Ukraine crisis.
