Cynthia Scharf is the Senior Strategy Director for the Carnegie Climate Governance (C2G) Initiative.
Ms. Scharf previously served as the head of strategic communications and speechwriter on climate change for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from 2009-2016. As a senior member of the Secretary-General’s climate change team, Ms. Scharf also helped organized two UN climate change summits (2014 and 2009) and supported the Secretary-General during the UNFCCC negotiations, including the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2015.
Prior to her work on climate change, Ms. Scharf worked in humanitarian relief at the UN and with international non-governmental organizations and served on several missions in the Balkans and East Africa. Ms. Scharf began her career as a journalist in Moscow in the early 1990s covering the collapse of the communist system. Her articles have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal Europe, Los Angeles Times, Globe and Mail and Moscow Times. She received her M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
Cynthia Scharf is the Senior Strategy Director the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative. She previously served as the head of strategic communications and speechwriter on climate change for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from 2009-2016. As a senior member of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, she helped organized two global UN climate change summits (2014 and 2009) and supported the Secretary-General during the UNFCCC negotiations, including the Paris climate change agreement in 2015.
Prior to her work on climate change, Ms. Scharf worked in humanitarian relief, both at the UN and with international non-governmental. She began her career as a journalist in Moscow covering the collapse of the communist system. Her articles have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal Europe, Los Angeles Times, Globe and Mail and Moscow Times. She received her M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
