What Happens When a Greenpeace Activist Gets Into Government?

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As Germany’s climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan stands alongside John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua of China as one of the world’s top climate negotiators. But she is no typical bureaucrat. Before taking up the position of envoy, she headed up Greenpeace, known for its political activism and climate stunts.

“I consider myself — and many other diplomats — activist diplomats,” Morgan said in an interview for the podcast.

Morgan took on the job in March 2022, just as Germany was facing up to its biggest geopolitical shock in decades: Russia invading Ukraine and the subsequent squeeze of Europe’s gas supplies. The conflict forced Germany, which sourced more than half of its gas from Russia, to build new liquefied natural gas terminals at record pace and to increase production of coal. Predictably, climate protests erupted across the country — Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was detained at one — and pictures of police in riot gear protecting giant earth diggers made for difficult headlines.

All of that has complicated Morgan’s role, which was meant to parlay German leadership on climate and clean energy into helping the world speed up reductions of planet-warming emissions. Germany has some of the most climate-forward targets on offer, including cutting coal use by 2030, banning fossil-fuel cars by 2035 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2045. “The government is working to do everything that it can to phase out coal more quickly, while also dealing with this Russian war of aggression,” Morgan said. “And that is hard; it is not easy at all.”

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Last year’s big US climate bill — the Inflation Reduction Act — added another complication. The European Union will spend more on various green initiatives than the US, but there is a risk that US tax incentives, the low cost of energy and simpler regulations could lure away from Europe those companies looking to build factories that make solar panels, batteries and hydrogen-producing electolyzers.

Morgan isn’t as worried as some businesses are. “Having a competition to drive things faster, and at bigger scale, is not a bad thing,” she said. She points to Europe’s more rounded approach to climate policy, which also includes carbon pricing and outright bans on carbon-emitting devices. “Incentives alone are not adequate to drive the types of [emission] reductions we need,” she said.

Morgan likewise welcomes the new era of competition on climate action. “It is excellent that the United States has a law that moves forward on renewable energy and on bringing down greenhouse-gas emissions,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

— With assistance by Christine Driscoll, Laura Millan Lombrana, Petra Sorge, John Ainger and Olivia Rudgard