The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth is creating a new Distinguished Fellows Program that will host leaders and key experts in climate and energy on campus to enrich the UChicago community and share knowledge. Through several visits over the course of an academic year, Distinguished Fellows will share perspectives and expertise in a series of lectures, workshops, and public discussions, as well as serve as resources for students, faculty, and staff.
The inaugural cohort of Distinguished Fellows will include economist Hina Rabbani Khar, a Pakistani stateswoman who was the 26th Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Andrew Light, the former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the Department of Energy and senior climate advisor and India counsellor at the State Department, and Sue Biniaz, former Principal Deputy Special Envoy for Climate and the lead U.S. climate lawyer for more than 25 years.
“We are thrilled and honored to welcome Hina, Andrew and Sue, who are international leaders on climate change,” says Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and director of the Institute. “As Distinguished Fellows, they will bring exceptional expertise and unique perspectives. Their experience will be an invaluable complement to our mission to ensure societies around the world have the tools and insights to balance the need to confront climate change with continued economic growth and progress. We are looking forward to learning from them and sharing their insights with the larger University of Chicago community.”
Hina Rabbani Khar
served as the first woman Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 2011-2013. She has been elected Member Parliament for four terms and is currently serving as Chair of Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Pakistan. She began her political career in 2002 and has held several cabinet positions including Foreign Minister, Minister of state for Finance, Minister of state for Economic Affairs. Khar is widely regarded as one of the highest-ranking women in Pakistani politics and is a sought after speaker on global politics and world order.
She is currently serving as Commissioner at the Climate Overshoot Commission, an independent group focused on reducing the risk of exceeding the Paris Agreement’s warming threshold. She has been involved with climate diplomacy globally and has steered Pakistan’s diplomacy towards more effective climate cooperation.
“Currently at the receiving end of climate carnage, countries like Pakistan are suffering from the impacts of climate change coming directly in the way of their growth trajectories,” says Khar. “When a reputable university like the University of Chicago puts this as a priority it gives us the hope that science, rational thinking and logic is what will help lead the debate. I am honored to lend my perspective to this conversation and hope we can work together to find possible solutions.”
Andrew Light
served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy from 2021 to 2025. At the Department of Energy, Light helped to accelerate and expand some three-dozen bilateral clean energy and energy security dialogues, forums, councils, and partnerships with countries from all regions of the world. He was also lead U.S. negotiator and Ministerial Sherpa for successful energy tracks of the G7, G20, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation platform, and served as Vice Chair of the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency.
Previously, Light served as Senior Adviser and India Counselor to the U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change, and as a Staff Climate Adviser in Secretary of State John Kerry’s Office of Policy Planning in the U.S. Department of State. In this capacity, he was Co-Chair of the U.S.-India Joint Working Group on Combating Climate Change, Chair of the Climate Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, and served on the senior strategy team for the UN climate negotiations that led to the creation of the Paris Agreement.
“The University of Chicago is a world leader in bringing data-driven analysis to create practical solutions to urgent policy problems, climate change, and the necessary clean energy transition, being chief among them,” says Light. “I’m thrilled to join the Institute team and work to design instruments that advance global cooperation on these critical issues.”
Sue Biniaz
was most recently the Principal Deputy Special Envoy for Climate for the United States. A former Deputy Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department, she was also the lead climate lawyer for the U.S. government for more than 25 years. In that capacity, she played a central role in all major international climate negotiations, including the Paris Agreement. As a Deputy Legal Adviser, she also supervised the Treaty Office and issues related to East Asian Affairs, Western Hemisphere Affairs, the environment, law of the sea, human rights and refugees, law enforcement, private international law, and Somali piracy. Biniaz previously led the State Department’s legal office for Oceans, Environment, and Science, as well as the legal office for European Affairs.
Between 2017 and returning to the State Department in 2021 with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Biniaz taught at Yale University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago and was a senior fellow at the UN Foundation. She continues to be a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. Earlier in her career, Biniaz clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She attended Yale College and earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School.
“I really enjoyed being an EPIC fellow and adjunct faculty at the law school in 2017, so I was thrilled to be asked to return,” says Biniaz. “I look forward once again to sharing some of my experiences with students and faculty.”