Trigg Talley

Trigg Talley is a visiting professor of the practice at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy at the Center of Global Sustainability. For 20 years, until his retirement from government in 2025, he served in various roles as the senior career climate official at the U.S. Department of State.

He was director of the State Department's climate office in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs; deputy climate envoy under Todd Stern in the three years leading up to the Paris Agreement; senior representative for climate during the first two years of President Donald Trump's first administration; and senior adviser and managing director for climate programs and negotiations in the office of Special Envoy John Kerry.

Throughout much of this period, he served as the senior U.S. official leading the delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as the lead for U.S. government engagement in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and several other international climate-focused organizations. He also oversaw more than 100 State Department climate programs and contributions to various multilateral climate funds. He served on the board of the Green Climate Fund from 2016 to 2018.

From 2019 to 2020, Talley was a visiting fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, working on local sustainability issues and Pacific Island engagement.

Before his work on climate change, he served as the lead officer for air pollution and chemicals in the State Department's environment office, where he was the department's lead negotiator in the development of five U.N. environmental agreements. He began his government career as a Presidential Management Fellow working on trade and environmental issues at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Talley holds a master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Virginia.