Dr. Lubchenco served as the Deputy Director for Climate and Environment in the White House (WH) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from February 16, 2021 to January 10, 2025. She assembled a stellar Climate and Environment (C&E) Team of around 60 exceptional scientists and policy experts who served terms of varying length, with around 25 people in place at any one time.  The Team was equally split between detailees from federal agencies and appointees or fellows from academia and civil society, plus some amazing interns.
The C&E Team focused on science for policy (creating new or updating existing policies) and policy for science (such as Scientific Integrity).  Working closely with colleagues across the WH and federal agencies, they sought to integrate science-based solutions to climate, inequity and inequality, loss of biodiversity and nature, and environmental health – with a special focus on the ocean and polar regions.  They worked to create “sticky” policies that would persist. Below are a few achievements that the Team led or strongly influenced.  ​

Achievements

Climate Change. The C&E Team successfully broadened the Administration’s historically ambitious climate change actions which were initially focused primarily on emissions reductions, clean energy, and environmental justice to also include adaptation and resilience, carbon removal, ocean-based climate solutions, nature-based solutions, and provision of climate services (data, information, products) to enable smart climate choices. The C&E Team provided the voice of science in developing the Administration’s climate policies – proposing new initiatives and vetting those suggested by others.  And they elevated the voices of scientists across the administration and the world, for example, through support of the IPCC and delivering the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5).     Significant resources were allocated to implementing most of the above policies through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.  Although these ambitious, integrated, and comprehensive efforts dramatically increased the nation’s progress in tackling climate change, they were understood to be only a down payment on what is needed.

​Nature. The C&E Team appreciated that loss of biodiversity and nature is a national and global threat on par with climate change. Elsewhere in the Administration, the nature agenda focused on conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through the America the Beautiful Initiative.  The C&E Team took a broader, 100% approach, understanding that halting and reversing the loss of biodiversity would require much more than creating protected and conserved areas.  The Team focused on addressing the underlying drivers of loss of biodiversity and nature by connecting the dots between nature and nature’s benefits to the economy, health, national security, climate solutions and environmental justice. They called this integrated, strategic approach ‘Mainstreaming Nature’ and published a scientific paper summarizing the approach and key elements (see the Supplemental Materials in the paper). Below are a few of the results.  
PictureUnder Secretary of State Jose Fernandez signed the High Seas Treaty for the U.S., with witnesses Elizabeth Kim, J.R. Littlejohn and Jane Lubchenco, at the United Nations, September 20, 2023
  • Understanding the importance of nature to national security, the Team promoted the concept of natural security and successfully included biodiversity and climate change in the National Security Strategy for the first time.  
  • The C&E Team worked closely with colleagues in the State Department and the WH to successfully conclude negotiations for the UN Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions (BBNJ) (known colloquially as the High Seas Treaty), ensure the U.S. signed it on the first day the Agreement was open for signature, and transmit the ratification papers to the Senate for its Advice and Consent.  
 
Indigenous Engagement and Knowledge. The C&E Team included Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and a Native Hawaiian.  Their knowledge and lived experiences greatly enriched the Team’s work across all areas.  Formal Tribal Consultation, engagement with Indigenous individuals, communities and organizations, and partnership with the WH Council on Native American Affairs characterized the Team’s approach to formulating relevant policies.  In addition,
  • C&E Team members proposed and led the development of a new administration-wide policy and implementation guidelines to recognize and elevate the importance of Indigenous Knowledge across federal actions, and the creation of an interagency mechanism to help agencies understand and advance successful application of the policy.     
  • In addition to renaming the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (see above under Nature), with the C&E Team’s assistance, the President also recognized posthumously the sacrifice of young Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander men, called collectively the Hui Panalāʻau, who were sent to secure the U.S. territorial claim to islands in the run up to World War II. 
 
Ocean. The C&E Team elevated the importance of the ocean across most of its work and promoted ocean science and exploration.  This included the above-mentioned climate efforts (Ocean Climate Action Plan, Marine Carbon-Dioxide Removal Research Strategy, coastal restoration for climate resilience); nature policies (Natural Capital Accounts marine accounts; Global Ocean Accounts Partnership; new National Marine Sanctuaries; High Seas Treaty); and new Indigenous engagement to rename a marine national monument).  In addition,
  • At the direction of Congress, C&E and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) established and led a new interagency coordinating mechanism, the Ocean Policy Committee, including developing its scope and action plans. 
  • The C&E Team spearheaded the U. S. joining the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy in 2021.  Lubchenco served as President Biden’s “Sherpa” (special ocean envoy) to the Ocean Panel, leading U.S. efforts to create a National Strategy for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, and encouraging other nations to create their own Ocean Climate Action Plans, join the Green Shipping Challenge and enhance its ambitions, and ratify key international agreements or treaties such as the Port States Measures Agreement, WTO’s Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, and the High Seas Treaty.
       
Polar. The C&E Team coordinated Executive branch science and policy efforts for both Arctic and Antarctic regions, seeking to enable and strengthen scientific advances and effective, integrated science-based policies at both poles.       
Environmental Health. The C&E team focused on the five major topics below, coordinating multiple interagency subject matter expert committees to evaluate the state of the science, research priorities, and actions needed to address each topic.  C&E Team members initiated actions on the first two topics. The last three responded to directives from Congress in the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021 which mandated the creation of new interagency coordinating mechanisms to address Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), Contaminants of Emerging Concern, and Sustainable Chemistry.  The C&E Team constituted three new interagency working groups through the National Science and Technology Council.  Highlights of the work of these five teams includes:
  • Toxic exposure: C&E led a team of scientists who proposed to the Veterans Administration leadership a vastly improved way of determining toxic exposure for veterans, taking advantage of big data and state-of-the-science analytical tools.  This updated scientific protocol was embraced by the VA leadership and incorporated into the bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act and is now enabling delivery of timely benefits and services to veterans impacted by toxic exposures while serving our country.  As required by the legislation, a new C&E-led interagency group later produced a 5-yr strategic plan to prioritize toxic exposure research across agencies to accelerate more advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. 
  • Indoor Air Quality: In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when most of the public was focused on vaccines, C&E drew attention to scientific information about the importance of indoor air quality and the steps that could be taken to improve it.
  Scientific Integrity. Science, evidence, and data are the foundation of effective policies that improve the health, security, safety, equity, and well-being of people. Moreover, for the public to trust federal policies and information, it is imperative that governmental personnel not manipulate, suppress, distort, or cherry-pick scientific information for political purposes.  Scientific Integrity policies are designed to do just that: ensure that federal information and policies adhere to the highest standards and be based on the best current scientific understanding.
After evidence surfaced in 2003 about WH political appointees in the Bush Administration manipulating and suppressing climate change scientific information, it became clear that the federal government needed clear SI policies. President Obama’s Memorandum initiated action and his Science Advisor, John Holdren articulated six SI guiding principles, followed by instructions to agencies to develop agency SI policies. NOAA’s 2011 SI Policy (amplified by its Procedural Handbook), developed under Lubchenco’s leadership, was lauded as the ‘gold standard’ of SI policies. That policy was tested in 2019 with the ‘Sharpiegate’ incident and enabled NOAA scientists to stand up to the President who had ordered one of his political appointees to alter a scientifically based forecast of the path of Hurricane Dorian.  That and other experiences revealed the need to further strengthen SI policies.  In 2018, Congress passed the Evidence Act, requiring that scientific knowledge, data, and evidence be the foundation for federal agency action. 
  • In 2021, President Biden signaled his administration’s strong commitment to evidence, science, and scientific integrity through a Memorandum on Restoring Trust in Government through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking.
  • As directed, OSTP (C&E and the Science and Society team) stood up a SI Task Force to review and evaluate existing policies and seek broad input to develop guidelines for agencies. 
  • The co-chairs of the SI Task Force summarized this work in an editorial in Science.  In that article, Alondra Nelson and Lubchenco reiterated the Obama Administration’s 6 SI Principles and added 5 Biden Administration OSTP principles: the ability of scientists to freely dissent must be protected; SI policies apply to all agencies, not just scientific agencies; SI policies apply to all federal personnel, including political appointees and non-scientists; scientists should actively participate in policy-formulation; and agency scientists should be free to discuss their non-classified research and findings with those outside the government, including journalists.  Finally, the article emphasizes that violations of scientific integrity policies be considered comparable to violations of government ethics rules.  
  • Based upon the TF’s report and these principles, the TF developed an SI framework for agencies to use to strengthen or develop their SI policies. Nineteen agencies proceeded to create new or enhance existing SI policies and implement them.
 
Environmental Justice. Environmental Justice was woven throughout the above policies and activities, for example the Justice40 Initiative (Climate), the Ocean Justice Strategy (Ocean), Indigenous Knowledge policies (IK), recognition of the Hui Panalā‘au (Ocean), and more. In addition, recognizing the need for vastly improved EJ science, data and research, a new research strategy was crafted.