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United States Institute of Peace

Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.

Director, Climate, Environment & Conflict

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Please submit all media inquiries to interviews@usip.org or call 202.429.3869.

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Dr. Tegan Blaine is the director of climate, environment & conflict at the U.S. Institute of Peace.  

Prior to joining USIP in 2020, she served as vice president on a climate change initiative at the National Geographic Society. She also led the climate change team in USAID’s Bureau for Africa for over a decade, where she developed USAID’s strategy and investment plan for its climate change work in Africa, and built and led a team that provided thought leadership and technical support to USAID’s Africa missions.

Before USAID, Dr. Blaine worked on climate change and international development at McKinsey & Company; served as a policy advisor on water at the U.S. Department of State; and taught math and physics as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania.

Dr. Blaine has a doctorate in oceanography and climate from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and bachelor’s degrees in comparative literature and mathematical ecology from Brown University. She has taught about climate change and international development at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Publications By Tegan

The Outlook for COP28: Fighting, Fighting Everywhere, with Progress on the Line

The Outlook for COP28: Fighting, Fighting Everywhere, with Progress on the Line

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

By: Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.;  Katherine Waters

The 2023 U.N. Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP28) risks becoming two December weeks of negotiations in Dubai rife with visible conflicts: With the chair of COP28 perceived by many as having conflicts of interest with the oil and gas industry, a newly released Global Stocktake report highlights how far global action is from achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Environment;  Global Policy

In Earth’s Climate Crisis, Africa Demands a Fairer Sharing of Costs

In Earth’s Climate Crisis, Africa Demands a Fairer Sharing of Costs

Thursday, September 14, 2023

By: Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.;  Emmanuel Davalillo Hidalgo

Earth’s intensifying storms, heat, droughts and floods underscore that humanity is falling behind in its race against climate change. With global powers and institutions still debating how to transform economies and share the costs of surviving a destabilizing climate, the planet’s most vulnerable continent managed partial advances this month toward a regional consensus. The first-ever Africa Climate Summit amplified demands for a robust, fairer collective response to a warming planet — but fell short of forging a unified African position. Critically, it missed a chance to outline a strategy for dealing with the combined impacts of climate and violent conflicts.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Environment;  Fragility & Resilience

What Does John Kerry’s Visit Mean for U.S.-China Climate Cooperation?

What Does John Kerry’s Visit Mean for U.S.-China Climate Cooperation?

Thursday, July 20, 2023

By: Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.;  Carla Freeman, Ph.D.;  Henry Tugendhat

This week, U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry spent four days in China in the hopes of facilitating a thaw in U.S.-China climate cooperation and easing tensions between Washington and Beijing more broadly. While the talks did not yield any major breakthroughs, any progress toward a shared climate agenda cannot be taken for granted after nearly two years of frozen relations. And with Kerry announcing plans for more bilateral talks ahead of the next round of U.N. climate negotiations in November, it appears that climate change may offer a tentative path for rebuilding trust between the two world powers.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Environment;  Global Policy

Four Takeaways from the COP27 Climate Conference

Four Takeaways from the COP27 Climate Conference

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

By: Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.

Many global headlines from last year have been shaped by — or contributed to — the visible impacts of climate change. From the floods in Pakistan to the droughts in East Africa, Europe’s energy crisis, global inflation and even the war in Ukraine, the gravity of the climate crisis has come into full focus for millions of people around the world.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Environment;  Global Policy

Moving Toward a Just Transition in Green Minerals

Moving Toward a Just Transition in Green Minerals

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

By: Tegan Blaine, Ph.D.;  Chris Collins;  Claire Doyle

We need minerals to build the solar panels, wind turbines and other technologies that will decarbonize our economies — and we need a lot of them. The World Bank estimates that demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite could jump by as much as 500 percent by 2050. Yet mining for these resources has had a fraught history, and it continues to be associated with a hefty list of human rights and conflict risks, including violence, child labor, poor working conditions, land rights abuses, environmental damage and pollution, and a lack of community participation.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Environment

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