Gina McCarthy, the White House national climate adviser, is preparing to leave her post coordinating the Biden administration’s domestic climate agenda, according to two people familiar with her plans.
McCarthy has not yet set a date for her departure, but she is likely to be replaced by her deputy, Ali Zaidi, though no final decisions have been made, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
President Biden created the top climate position at the White House to reflect his administration’s focus on combating climate change. McCarthy’s role is the domestic counterpart to John F. Kerry, who serves in the newly created role of the special presidential envoy for climate at the State Department.
“We have no personnel announcements to make,” White House spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement. “Gina and her entire team continue to be laser focused on delivering on President Biden’s clean energy agenda.”
Reuters first reported on McCarthy’s plans to leave the White House.
Biden chose McCarthy in part because of her years leading the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration, when she helped enact some of the toughest regulations to curb greenhouse gases from power plants and vehicles the country had ever seen. But McCarthy had privately signaled from the start she would only return to government for a brief stint.