Event Date
Andrew Rakestraw is currently serving as Chair of California’s Board of Environmental Safety, tasked with enhancing the transparency, accountability, and fiscal stability of California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Rakestraw’s career has focused on addressing climate change through science-based law and policy, with a commitment to protecting vulnerable communities. He brings more than a decade of experience in environmental law and federal climate policy. He served at the U.S. Department of State from 2013 to 2025 in the Office of Global Change, the Office of the Legal Adviser and the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.
While at the State Department, he served as deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations climate negotiations, helped negotiate key provisions of the Paris Agreement, co-chaired talks on the agreement’s accountability mechanisms, and was the lead U.S. negotiator on cutting emissions from international shipping.
Rakestraw holds a juris doctor degree from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly Hastings), where he completed a full environmental law curriculum. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of Washington.
Lunch provided. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Law and Policy, the Journal of International Law and Policy, and the California Environmental Law and Policy Center.